Easy Passage
p. 28 · Read in the full issue
Fiji’s Press Bill Has Easy Passage
From Our Own Correspondent SUVA, March 22.
DESPITE a strenuous endeavour by Mr.
A. A. Ragg, to show that Fiji’s Press 'Correction Bill was a milestone on the way to slavery under a totalitarian dictatorship, a majority of the unofficial members of the Fiji Legislative Council, supported the measure and threw out an amendment by which Mr. Ragg sought to delay the measure for six months.
Government speakers, including the Governor (Sir Brian Freeston). the Colonial Secretary (Mr. J. F. Nicoll) and the Acting Attorney-General (Mr. B. A.
Doyle), reaffirmed that there was nothing sinister about the Bill and that there was no desire to turn the press into a sub servient mouthpiece of the Government.
There was no concealment of the fact that the basis of the measure was appre hension in case non-English publications, which were likely to appear in the future, and which possibly would lack experienced staffs, might become Communist propa ganda sheets. It was stressed that the legislation was not directed at any exist ing publication. TT Mr. A. D. Patel defended the Bill. He pointed out that there was no restriction of the freedom of the press and added that a paper could still “tell lies or distort facts to its heart’s content.”