The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-02-13
LIBEL LAW REFORM.
Opinions That Apply Appropriately to
$ the Indiana Statute.
York Herald.

New YORK Herald.
Every fair-minded newspaper must note
with satisfaction the growing disposition IN
various parts of the country TO reform the
existing harsh and unjust law of libel.
Last year Pennsylvania enacted a crimi-
nal Statute for the punishment of any per-
son who willfully gives false news TO a re,
porter for publication. That is a timely and
just enactment, since IL is aimed at the
real offened-namely, the person who know
ingly starts a libelouS report. More recent
~ Georgia has passed a law providing that
rection has been published no exemplary,
but only actual damages shall De recoVereu.
The matter has also been taken up IN New
Jersey. A bill pending in the LeglsIaeure oa
that State declares that exemplary damage
shall not be awarded where no mancS Is
shown, and that publication OF a retracuon
shall be admitted in evidence In mltgaIoh
of damages and rebuttal Of the presump-
ton of malice.
In this praiseworthy reform movement
New York the head &c center heb,n 81 anV STATE
The Georgia law was passed in response
to a unanimous demand OF the press OF
that State. The newspapers or this state
should voice a similar demand, and we
trust they will unite in doing so now whlie
the Legislature is in session. In every part
of the State the force of popular sentiment
should be brought to bear upon senators
and AsSemblymen TO carry a reform ue-
manded by common justice as well as fair
The existing law is one of the harshest
and most unjust on our statute books. II Is
Il TcllC OF the DdIDdIllN MAlCb hdo IN AhNC
in the advanced journalism and civilization
of America at the end of the nineteenth
century. In the hands of unscrupulous
pettifoggers and strikers il is a ready
means of blackmail and other abuses which
call for a prompt and effective check
The ideal libel law is a criminal law that
Furnishes the guilty without Furnishing the
innocent by holding to penal liability the
real offender who sets afioat a false or
libelous statement. This principle is rec
for damages is practically obsolete. and the
same thcOry Is embodied In the recent
Pennsylvania statute to which we have
called attention.
The action for damages might well be
abolished. and some day il will be. If the
publication of n libel is willful and malicious
it is a crime for which the guilty offender
should be punished. If its publicatio I IS not
willful or malicious, but made inadvertently
and without blame, any damage done VIII
he best repaired by a prompt correction,
which any reputable journal is always ready
to make, in justice 10 itself as Well as the
aggrieved complainant.
! But if the action for damages Is not to be
abolished tie law governing 1T should be
SO changed as TO do away with the absurd
fly and injustice that now characterize IL:
Exemplary damages should not be allowed
unless malice is proved and the defendant
has refused to make a retraction. Recov-
cry should be limited to actual damages
commensurate with the injury sustained,
and as that injury is wholly or partly re
traction, such publication should be received
as evidence in determining the measure OF
damage.
The Herald has long urged the common
Justice OF ameliCrating the law of libel, and
we trust our contemporaries throughout the
which is at once due to the press and the
public.