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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria University College, Wellington N.Z. Vol. 20, No. 5. May 2, 1957

[Introduction]

• "Why is the New Zealand Press so rightist? ... I am astonished at the way news is handled by almost the entire Press in New Zealand. In some areas sermons that backed the United Nations in its declaration of Britain as an aggressor were passed over, while the sermons of those who spoke in terms of expediency were given a column and a half. Lord Tedder spoke out strongly against the Government (over Suez) on moral terms that received great prominence in Great Britain, but was tucked away—if reported at all—in New Zealand."

—Dr. G. F. McLeod, Moderator-Designate of the Church of Scotland, in the "Evening Post," 8 January, 1957.

• "The absence of an effective left-wing or liberal press leaves the conservative press in undisputed control, and without any adequate means of comparison the people of New Zealand accept right-wing standards as normal. This supremacy cannot, of course, be altered. It is, however, wholly regrettable that the New Zealand Press exercises its supremacy not only in editorial comment, but also in its selection of news. . . . Undisputed right-wing emphasis ... is a positive danger."

—Monica Pembleton, in "Critic," Otago University Students' Paper, 4 April, 1957.

• "Newspapers are run for a profit. And since they have such a powerful influence on public opinion, they are run for that purpose also, by people who have reasons for wanting to influence public opinion. If you think they're run primarily to give you the news of the day, go away to some quiet place and work it out all over again."

—The late A. R. D. Fairburn, in the pamphlet "Who Said Red Ruin?" published in Auckland in 1938.

All these statements refer to New Zealand's newspapers, the means by which most of us get our idea of what is going on in the world.

The first two statements were made this year. The last one was made 19 years ago, but in a year which, like this year, was marked by a general election.