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Page 1 of 11924 · PDF PAGE 3
… together, they show that anonymous scoundrels, backed by the resources of a great newspaper organisation, canin fact, as distinct from legal fictionfreely direct, against any man or woman who happens to be socially ill-protected, an unscrupulously untrue and in- decent campaign, which, judged by its effects, may be morally indistinguishable from murder. 3. This state of affairs constitutes a menace of unprecedented gravity against the life and work of every individual citizen, and against the very foundations of public morality. The allegati…
1924 · PDF PAGE 11
…n so much as accused of any crime before any court in any country in the world. Now no honest person can pretend for a mo- ment that any legal process is needed in order to expose the absoluteness of this particular lie. A criminal conviction is a matter of public record, and such an allegation as your editor has made is capable of rigorous proof or disproof, like any other matter of officially recorded public history. It is this obvious fact, instantly felt by every reader, that makes this lie so dastardly. Every reader instinctively assumes t…
1924 · PDF PAGE 6
…ur editors lie has wrought the havoc, and more. In France, my Lord, as you are doubtless aware, any man attacked in a newspaper has the legal right to reply in its columns, and his reply must be printed in the same type and in the same place as the original attack. This law is admirably just and wise. Its effect has been to put a complete stop, in France, to this plague of anonymous defamation, whether used as the instrument of journalistic blackmail, or simply as a form of profitable sensationalism. The present case shows how a man of letters…
1924 · PDF PAGE 5
man, or the man wrapped up in creative work, in taking legal action against a wealthy and power- ful corporation. To him a libel suit, even if not actually impossible, means, at the very least, financial chaos and the indefinite paralysis of his work. More than this, the libel, however false in point of fact, may be so damaging in purport, and make so unscrupulous an appeal to violent popular passions, that it robs its victim, in advance, of any of the normal means of redress. The man of letters is peculiarly ill-protected against sensational n…