The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1891-08-08
LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

The question as to the legal right of a
court OF this state to require an editor
OF a newspaper published in it to give
the name of an informant or CORE
spondent is one which involves the liberty
OF the press quite as deeply as any other.
Ii the laws OF the state can be tortured
into the comforting of that right the
press OF Montana cannot too soon or too
often denounce the law and contend for
it's repeal or modification. OF course an
editor should be held amenable for his
utterances through the columns of the
journal over which he has control. He
may occasionally make mistakes; so do
'ourts and juries. The editor writes
rom his expressions or his knowledge of
Facts. He may err in the one or be i'm
posed upon in the other. In either case
the law as it is read and interpreted by
some courts Furnishes him for his mis-
take in Judgment, or for his reliance up
on an unfaithful informant or CORE
spondent. A jury may convict and a
Judge may sentence an innocent man to
imprisonment or to death. But there is
no law to punish either for accepting cir
cumstantial evidence as a fact or the
testimony of increditable witnesses as
true. Talk about interfering with the
course of Justice! Editors never hang
men nor send them to the penitentiary.
And how can the course of justice be
more gravely or more fatally interfered
with than when innocent men be Judi
clally murdered upon the gallows or
consigned to dungeons for life?
Some courts, though composed of COM
mon clay, are fcarfully and wonderfully
made IN more senses than one. Some of
them are abnormally thin skinned and
sensitive. None are infallible, and yet
they are apt to predicate proceedings
against editors upon grounds which pre-
suppose that courts can do no wrong
Intentionally or otherwise. 1t is true
that newspapers should not directly OF
indirectly impcach the integrity of courts
or say ought that will impair the con
iidencc Of the public in them. A Judge
may be a drunkard or a gambler or a
OF Il hOrsc-thief, but it is as
sumcd that a newspaper will remain
silent until such time as the erminc be
taken from his unworthy shoulders by
or due course of law. In the mean
time the voice of an indignant people,
which should find expression in the col
umns of their press, is stitled because
forsooth the law holds a clenchcd hand
over the editor who dare reflect upon the
integrity of the court.
In these remarks the TRIBUNE speaks
things as they may be not as they
are. 1t refers to the position the press
the state occupies in the light of
'ecent events, and intimates what that
position may become if the law govern
ng the responsibility Of the press to the
shall admit of the Interpretation
placed upon it by the Butte court. The
holds that the liberty of the
'ress in Montana is at stake in the issue
" the Mcknight contempt case and ,
While it would not say one word that .
nay be tortured into disrespect to any :
curt it nevertheless believes that the ,
line has come for the newspapers of the :.
tate to take issue with any law or ruling |;
which will compel any editor to give the ,
of his informant or correspondent =
o any court upon Gods green earth.