UNFAIR LIBEL LAWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 15 May 1913, Page 4

UNFAIR LIBEL LAWS.

Thus lie Sydney Sun: —The vast majority of the threats delivered to Sydney newspapers are "tvies-on" of the most palpable description. By no stretoh of imagination can the ''injured" party be regarded as having suffered the least material or .sentimental damage. The law is simply used as a means of extorting money That-, however, is the least serious side of the matter. Whether newspaper proprietaries are subject to a system of blackmail <loes not directly affect public welfare. The really shocking part of the business is that the newspaper press of Sydney ha its hands tied in its dealings with the action of public bodies and public men. Did it possess the game freedom as the press of Great Britain, it is safe to predict that the public would to-day hold vast sums out of which <it ,has been tricked by fraud. Not another city in the British Empire is surrounded by such an atmosphere of suspicion, and, at times the audacity of certain "boodlers" has readied* lengths reminiscent of San Francisco under the rule of Abe Ruef. The price which the public of Sydney pays for tke muzzling of its newspapers is »■ heavy one, indeed.