The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-06-27

/ injury inflicted. but gives the plaintiff
every right in the way of compensa
ton that he has now. 1t only takes
away the ability of the jury to punish
with vindictive damages the defend
ant, where there was no malice, where
the publication was made by mistake,
/ and where the publisher has done
everything in his power to repair the
injury. 1t prevents newspapers from
being punished for malice when inno-
cent of malice.
i AS The Herald has argued before,
there are intentional libels and unin-
territorial libels. There are spiteful accu-
sations made against individuals with
malicious purpose and design to do
/ injury There are others published
solely as news and without any intent
to do harm. The essential difference
between these ought TO be perceived
by everybody and particularly by
courts and juries. The fact that a
paper publishes something that is I'M
true is not evidence that the error was
intentional or that malice prompted
the publication. And when that paper
fairly retracts or publishes a denial
from the injured party and shows
that mistake has been made instead
of libel intended, punitive damages
ought never to be imposed.
In a case against the Chicago Her.
| aid for publishing dispatch in which
1t was stated that a prominent lady
vocalist had eloped with gay young
bachelor. the plaintiff was awarded
$4,000 damages. On appeal Judge
Dunno reversed the verdict, recogniz-
ing the fact set forth by the defend
ant newspaper that it had no know1-
edge of the plaintiff or malice of any
sort toward her That the article was
published in the regular course of
business as a matter OF news, and that
the plaintiff made no effort to inform
the newspaper of the truth or to re-
tract the statement in the article.
Judge Dunno said:
When a newspaper is lead into pub
fishing unknOwingly an untrue state
ment cohcerninihE all individual 1t
Should not only retract when the truth
is made known, but also compensate
the injured party for injury already
done, but it is equally the duty of the
person thus injured to make known
the truth, demand retraction and les
sen so far as possible the injurious con-
sequences of the libelous publication
If this be done and the paper persists
in repeating the statement or refuses
ample retraction and reparation, then
1t is time for the vindictive lightning
of the law to strike.
That is good law and sound common
la +. Il
ed against the vindictive assaults of
blackguard and slanderOus scribes.
But when newspaper in endeavors
to furnish the public with the news
of the times make an uninten-
tional mistake. and is ready to make
such amends as lie III its power, that
paper should be protected against the
greedy and voracious blackmailer VINO
seeks to bleed the publisher and make
great gain out of a small injury.
a Utah contemporary closes some re-
marks in relation to libel suits with
the following peculiar paragraph:
oh, Almighty Statehood give us q
libel law by which newspap ers may be
rescued from the impOsiture germs of
thoughtless multitudes, for we are now
powerless in our aspirations for pro-
priety.
In another article in the same pa
per we find this sentence:
To the members of the press should.
to certain extent, be credited the ac-
complishment of statehood. They have
an eVer-toiling, ambitious and ironclad
brain.
We presume it was that kind of a
brain that originated the apostrophe
quoted above.
The Utah constitution provides in
the bill of rights that:
No law shall be passed TO abridge or
restrain the freedom of speech or of
the press. In all criminal prosecutions
Tor libel the truth may be given in evil (
oence to the jury, and if it shall ap-
pear to the jury that the matter
charged as libelous is true, and was
published with good motives and for
Justlfia bic ends. the party shall be ac-
Quilted and the jury shall have the /
right to determine the law and the /
fact.
This is not so broad and liberal as
the law recently passed in Illinois but
1t is good as far as it goes and does not
bind the legislature of the state from
enacting such statutes as may be ne |
cessary to secure at he same time the I
rights of the public and the proper lin
erty of the press. /