STERN CENSOR
SIR ROGER L'ESTRANGE. i Even our war-time censorship of the press would have seemed far too mild to Sir Roger L’Estrangc, who died on December 11, 1704. Appointed to control the press in 16G3. L’Estrangc began by ordering a reduction of the printing' presses of London from sixty to twenty, and decreed that, in addition to the ordinary brutal punishments (cutting off of ears and the like) already inflicted for alleged treasonable or seditious publications, culprits convicted of lesser infractions of the law should be compelled to wear "some visible badge of ignominy, as a halter instead of a hat band, or one stocking blue and the other red."
In principle, he opposed newspapers altogether, holding that “reading makes the multitude too familiar with the actions and counsels of their superiors.” and while unable to suppress them entirely he contrived to muzzle and restrict all save purely Government organs to such a degree that “oven his Majesty said several times he wondered how it could bo done."
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1941, Page 6
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169STERN CENSOR Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1941, Page 6
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