Editorial: Freedom of speech to be upheld

Photo / Thinkstock

Sometimes I get people questioning why Hawke's Bay Today has published a certain letter or opinion piece which they believe unfairly criticises someone or something.

The questioner usually suggests that I should have censored the contribution.

It is a question that surprises me, because in New Zealand we are lucky enough to have freedom of speech.

In some countries, newspapers are told what they can write. Growing up in apartheid South Africa, newspapers were severely restricted in what they could report and editors who disobeyed were arrested.

So, this newspaper respects the laws of the land and we hold the right of freedom of speech very dearly. We welcome letters from our readers and the only reason some letters from frequent correspondents are not run is because we want to give others a chance to express themselves. Thankfully, many do and it makes for lively and colourful opinion pages.

I will even run, and have done so many times, letters that are critical of this paper.

There are some limits to what we publish and even though a few people may think all contributions are printed without care, there are some that are sent back for rewriting and others that don't see the light of day because they are defamatory, excessively nasty and abusive or downright untrue. Sometimes we have to delete comments on our Facebook page because they contain offensive language or unsubstantiated accusations, but that is a whole different story.

At the end of the day we try to be fair to all and give people the right of reply.

It is better to have robust debate than no debate at all.