The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-21 00:00:00

The Press Laws in Prussia.

The semi-official Nord-Deutsche Allgenteine Zeitung, the
organ of Herr von Bismark, publishes the following caution
to the Prussian press :

" Considering the tone again adopted in the proceedings
of the Chamber of Deputies, and especially in the speech of
Deputy Grabow on Monday last, it will not be superfluous
to call attention to the judgment delivered in March last
year by the Supreme Court with respect to the publication
of objectively punishable expressions in Parliamentary pro-
ceedings. Section 38 of the Press Law of the 12th of May,
1851, orders that reports of the public sittings of both
Chambers, so far as given in conformity with truth, are
free from all responsibility. This :permission became the
subject of great abuses on the part of the press, all and
every reproduction of speeches and individual remarks
made in Parliament being considered unconditionally
allowed without risk of punishment. Certain jour-
nals reproduced under the heading and pretence
of Parliamentary reports only an arbitrary selection
of the speeches or remarks of individual deputies especially
favourable to their party interests, without taking equal
care to reprint the speeches made in their refutation. Again,
some of the most obnoxious speeches partially containing
objectively punishable matter were given textually, uncon-
nected with the report of the sitting, and afterwards printed
separately. Finally, just the punishable expressions were
quoted and repeated ad libitum in editorial articles of the
paper. The Supreme Court has decided that all these abuses
of the above section of the press law are inadmissible. The
following principles are laid down in the judgment already
alluded to, from which may be seen what is to be regarded
as a truthful report of Parliamentary sittings :—A report of
a matter is a plain historical statement of its progress. The
object is simply to bring this progress into view. A report
of a sitting of the Chamber is therefore only a plain state-
ment of facts occurring in the proceedings, and of the
speeches made respecting them. It may be allowed even to
reproduce the speeches in an abbreviated form. But the re-
presentation must in any case be both in form and contents
of such a nature as to correspond to the character of a re-
port, and therefore simply to reproduce what has taken
place either in its entirety or its main features. The reason
and object of the law consist in affording to the country the
possibility of following the public acts of the Deputies, and
thereby obtaining full acquaintance of their speeches, but
not in permitting the obnoxious contents of such speeches
to be especially reproduced ad libitum. We think the edi-
tors of newspapers will do well to exercise the strictest care
in observing these principles laid down by the highest legal
authority. The Government -of the King will in any case
be prepared to put an effective stop to any renewed at-
tempts at illegal use of the punishable expressions of indi-
vidual deputies."

POLISH VICTIMS.-4‘ A communication from
Warsaw," says the Patrie, " announces the death
of M. Lasocki, nephew of Count Walewski, ex-Minister of
State. The deceased, a rich landowner, was a man of very
moderate opinions and a declared adversary of the insurrec-
tion. It happened, however, in the course of last winter,
that the police abused the right of illuminating houses on
any anniversary or Russian fete. He felt a certain repug-
nance to join in such manifestations when so many Polish
families were in mourning around him, and one day he re-
fused. He was immediately summoned before the Grand
Master of Police, and was condemned for the offence to go
and reside in a small town in the government of Benza at
the very bottom of Russia. Some time since he wrote to
his mother, and drew such a picture of what ho had to en-
dure that the old lady fainted on reading the letter, and
soon after expired. M. Lasocki himself has now died from
the privations to which he was reduced."