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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 1
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Mr A. V. Haight, renowned for exquisite color-printing, is contributing articles on the subject to the Inland Printer. We regret that the April part, with the first of the series, has failed to reach us.
If the new English libel law amendment bill is passed, the Mother Country will have set the colonies a good example. The Pall Mall Gazette says: It is to be hoped that it will speedily become law, as far, at any rate, as its two main provisions are concerned. By the first of these any journalist defendant in an action for libel may apply summarily to a Judge sitting at chambers to order the action to be stayed on the ground of its trifling nature, or because the plaintiff has not suffered substantial injury, or upon other grounds; and if he can prove any of them to the satisfaction of the judge, the action is to be stayed, or at least the judge shall order the plaintiff to give security for the defendant's costs before he be allowed to proceed. This provision will at once put an end to actions by men of straw, who have so much to win and nothing to lose under the present system; and it will prevent the recurrence of a great hardship upon newspaper men, who have so often been put to great trouble and expense to defend themselves against a frivolous or unfounded charge brought by a person who is unable to pay the costs when defeated. By the second provision the Judge is obliged to order security for a defendant's costs wherever a plaintiff is wit hout means. This will enforce fair play, by making each party to a libel action stake his money beforehand. It is not to be expected that so strong a reform as this will not meet with keen opposition, but we are certainly not without hope that justice will prevail, and that the newspaper man will at last be placed on an equal footing with defendants in other cases. That will be for the public good even more than for that of the journalist.