THE LIBEL LAW.
With one hand the Legislature of New Zealand has lifted the Press from the days of barbarism, and with the other it has put it back into the Dark Ages. At the very moment when tho newspapers we're about to congratulate the Government upon making a good and wise move, the Attorney-General inserted a clause in the libel law which makes the position more intolerable than before. The object of the clause was to meet a certain situation which had arisen; but its general application will mean the "gagging" of the Press The Legislature could not have contemplated the effect of tho clause which was proposed by the Attorney-General, or it would i not have passed it without a determined fight. The Press of the Dominion, as well as members of the Legislature, have been taken by surprise. The new "gagging" clause cannot be allowed to remain upon the Statute | Book. Its effect will be to stifle public criticism, and to remove the very last safeguard the country possesses against maladministration and corruption.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAG19101208.2.11
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10135, 8 December 1910, Page 4
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176THE LIBEL LAW. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10135, 8 December 1910, Page 4
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