Editor accuses:
Cappicade Censored

The Editor Of Cappicade, David Smith, has accused Organ Brothers Ltd., a Wellington printing firm, with contravening the contract under which they printed Cappicade this year.

"The printers originally agreed to accept decisions made by our legal adviser on possibly libellous or obscene items", he said.

"They later retracted and said it was just for libel, not obscenity.

"When Masskerade came out they got the wind up."

Mr. Smith said items were censored out by Organ Bros, on the basis of a second legal opinion.

Mr. Smith said he had once relumed from the printer and within half an hour they had phoned and said that on the basis of a second legal opininion they would not print the material.

"Our legal adviser said that in his opinion no one would examine that material within that period."

"Their rationalisation was that they would send us a letter from their solicitors explaining their reasons for deleting the copy", he said.

"They painted out faces of swimmers in one item and even cut one page at such a late hour that we had to leave a hole with the word 'censored' in it."

Mr. Smith gave an example of one piece which they refused to print because it was actionable.

It is printed on the page.

Mr. Smith said Organ Bros, had told him they had their reputation to preserve.

"Organ Bros, print Turf Digest among others", he said.

Mr. Smith said it was also part of the contract that he would be responsible for the actual pasted-up proofs ready for reproducing.

"They said we could only design the pages very roughly."

"They said I would be usurping the compositor's functions and would declare the magazine 'black' unless they could do the paste-up."

Mr. Smith said he was put in the "embarrassing" position "in having to tell some design students from Polytechnic I had recruited they were not wanted".

Mr. Smith said he would be making a report to the Publications Committee in which he would discuss the matter in more detail.

"It is generally considered that this was a test case for Salient next year", Mr. Smith said.