De(press)ed freedoms

The need for LawsWatch has been brought sharply into focus today. While commenters have argued we're "not part of the media" (a view not held by Rupert Murdoch, among others) we've maintained that blogs play a vital role, particularly in any situation where mainstream media cannot or will not fulfil the functions of the Fourth Estate.

Wanganui, it seems, is such a place.

The River City Press has refused to accept any further advertising for the LawsWatch website from our anonymous benefactor. Yes, anonymous - we don't know who it is. We were contacted via email from an anonymous address and asked if we had any objection to the advertisements being placed. We did not. We'd encourage anyone with spare time or spare money to promote LawsWatch in any way they like.

Here's the sequence of events today:

1. Following accusations in comments on the blog that the advertisements were placed by Carol Webb, claiming to have received such information from River City Press themselves, the person who actually did place the ads contacted the RCP this morning to question them as to why they would:
1. Say that someone placed an ad who had not done so.
2. Discuss the identity of an advertiser with someone who had no business to be asking in the first place.
He (yes, the donor was male) said he wanted RCP to organise to put the record straight with an official posting on this blog.
2. The person who dealt with the advertisement alternated between denying she was the one responsible and saying she'd only told one other person, the "editor".
3. Now she says the council has told them "they are not happy" with the ad, used the old "potentially defamatory" line and threatened to pull Dot's column (gee whiz, that would be a loss).

Our benefactor has now been told RCP will not run any further ads for LawsWatch "because we don't want to be the meat in the sandwich". A copy of the advertisement, and it's handy placement right next to Dotty's delerious Diva-esque ramblings, can be seen above. We realise it's a bit hard to read. What it says is:

http://lawswatch.blogspot.com
Join The Watchers at Laws Watch
Council Comment
that counts
Have your say NOW on Wanganui politics

See anything "potentially defamatory" in that? Of course not. To use the potential of defamation as an excuse not to publish an innocuous advertisement is yellow journalism.

Well, here's something that is potentially defamatory: The River City Press is a gutless ad-rag with it's head clearly so far up the status quo that anything it publishes is immediately suspect.

We're not in the business of censorship. We've edited one single comment from hundreds that have been posted here these past months, to remove an irrelevant comment on someone's appearance, and have deleted only spam. We're happy to have people visit and leave comments supporting the Diva, and criticising us and this blog.

If you'd like to see the River City Press follow the same policy of open debate, write to them at rivercitypress@xtra.co.nz and let them know.

Update: Just for fun, here's Goebbels on why it's wrong to listen to the BBC, with the words England or BBC substituted for LawsWatch, references to Germany substituted for "Wanganui", Fuhrer for "Mayor" and the boring military bits removed (original speech can be found here):

LawsWatch... want to cause unrest in the Wanganui population through their enormously exaggerated figures. We cannot reply to their lies, since we want to provide only accurate figures, which simply are not available at the moment.

Aside from the criminal nature of such behavior, does it really pay to read LawsWatch? We have to read them for professional reasons. Cross our hearts, we would be delighted if we were free from this unpleasant duty...

If our radio and press are silent, it usually means operations of truly gigantic scope are being prepared. It is the duty of each Wanganui citizen to wait with confidence — a confidence, by the way, that is justified by countless historical successes. When citizens secretly read LawsWatch, they are being played for fools by our most bitter enemies.

That is not only criminal, it is absolutely unfair. The Mayor and his political staff are working day and night, and not for themselves, but for the people that mean everything to them. Just before the great successes, they often hold their breaths, wondering if everything will work, if things will really turn out as planned, if perhaps somewhere unforeseen problems will surface. Then they are delighted to once again announce a great victory to the people, compensating them for the long period of silence.

Meanwhile, some citizens sit at the computer reading LawsWatch. That is thankless, contemptible, and vile. It lacks even the most basic respect for the work and responsibility of the leadership...

We know well enough the terrible consequences anti-Laws propaganda had for us in the Hawkes Bay War. We do not want to run the risk of that danger a second time...

Does not such rumor mongering deserve not only prison, but also the contempt of the entire people? We cannot excuse it on grounds of stupidity. We are fighting for our lives... If Wanganui's citizens do not have enough brains in their heads to see that... one may not read the enemy, then they must receive exemplary punishment

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