More than fifty years ago Sir Charles Wyke wrote J. T . Delane from Copenhagen, July 9, 1869, proposing that abuse of liberty of the press should be regulated by the press itself rather than by the government since “ this sameabuse of liberty degenerating into license is more hurtful to the healthy portion of the Press than to any other element in the State.” He suggested that a committee should be chosen and elected among the leading
journalists who should be empowered to prosecute, and enabled to do so by a fund specially set apart for that purpose from the
revenues of the country, in order to punish and put down what
was at once discreditable to their profession and hurtful to the community at large. This committee would be changeable from
time to time, and in its operation, backed by public opinion , would have far more power than could ever be exercised by a
Government prosecution. The suggestion of Sir Charles arose out of a proposal to pass a law in Hanover regulating the press ; the Government, while
anxious to give all due liberty to the press, wished to control its excesses. The Minister of the Interior consulted with him and
the result was this suggestion. It was received with favor, but before it could be acted on Hanover had become a Prussian province. Sir Charles evidently questioned the feasibility of carrying out the idea in England , but felt that something ought
to be done to check the license of the press, as he regarded it. 50 Public opinion may in the long run be relied on to disapprove of
flagrant cases of inaccuracy that miss by a hair's breadth action for libel, and the defect of the plan of Sir Charles was that it was
punitive, not preventive.
A plan looking directly to prevention rather than to cure has Aside from these results, the Bureau has “ had a beneficial and bracing effect upon out-of- town correspondents and news agencies and (has brought to light and weeded out several habitually careless men and fakers."
50 A . I. Dasent, John Thadeus Delane, II, 241-242. It is interesting to note that only a few months before The Nation had
complained bitterly of a maliciously padded interview of a New York daily ,
and adds, “ The lesson that there are limits to people's endurance of printed impudence is one that should be taught the conductors of the press by their own sense of moral responsibility for all the damage done by anything
to which they give publicity.” — “ Interviewing,” The Nation , January 28 , 1869, 8 : 66 - 68 .
