The Newspapers Ordinance

1178 Cap. 111] Newspapers CHAPTER 111. NEWSPAPERS. ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS. SECTION.

Right of a party to a transfer of an interest in a newspaper to makea return at any time.

Right to search register, etc.

Certified extracts from register to be evidence. Certificate ofnon-registration.

CHAPTER 111. NEWSPAPERS. 43 of 1924. An Ordinance to provide for the Registration of Newspapers and their Proprietors and for the printing on Newspapers of the Names of the Printers. Short title. In terpretation. Cap. 259. (27TH DECEMBER, 1924.] 1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Newspapers Ordinance, and shall apply to the Colony and Protectorate. 2. In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires- " Registrar General " means the Registrar General appointed under the General Registration Ordinance, or any Ordinance amending or substituted for the same, and shall include the Deputy Registrar General appointed under the said Ordinance; "newspaper" means any paper containing public news or occurrences, or any remarks or observations thereon, printed for sale and published periodically or in parts or numbers; Newspapers [Cap. 111 "occupation," when applied to any person, means his trade or occupation or, if he has no trade or occupation, his rank or usual title; " place of residence " includes the street or place where the person to whom the expression refers resides. 3. It shall be the duty of the printers and publishers for the time being of every newspaper to make, or cause to be made, to the Registrar General, within one month after the commencement of this Ordinance, or in the case of a newspaper first published after the commencement of this Ordinance, within one month after the first publication thereof, and thereafter annually in the month of January in every year, a return of the following particulars according to Form A in the schedule hereto, namely- (a) The title of the newspaper, and (b) The names of all the proprietors of the newspaper, with their respective occupations, places of business, if any, and places of residence. 4. If such return be not made with regard to any newspaper within the time prescribed by the preceding section, each printer and publisher of such newspaper shall, on summary conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty-five pounds. 5. Any party to a transfer or transmission of, or dealing with, any share or interest in any newspaper whereby any person ceases to be a proprietor, or any new proprietor is introduced, may at any time make, or cause to be made, to the Registrar General a return according to Form Bin the schedule hereto and containing the particulars therein indicated. 6. If any person shall knowingly and wilfully make, or cause to be made, any return by this Ordinance required or permitted to be made, in which shall be inserted the name of any person as a proprietor of a newspaper who shall not be a proprietor thereof, or in which there shall be any misrepresentation, or from which there shall be any omission in respect of any of the particulars by this Ordinance required to be contained therein, whereby such return shall be misleading, or, if any proprietor of a newspaper shall knowingly and wilfully permit any such return to be made which shall be misleading as to any of the particulars with reference to his own name, occupation or place Annual returns to be made. Form A. Penalty for omission to make return. Right of a party to a transfer of an interest in a newspaper to make a return at any time. Form B. Penalty for wilful misrepresentation in, or omission from, return. Registrar General to enter returns in register. Right to search register, eto. Certified extracts from register to be evidence. Certificate of non-registration. Penalty to which printers and publishers are liable. Delivery of signed copies. Cap. 111] Newspapers of business or Tesidence; then, and in every such case, every such offender shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds. 7. It shall be the duty of the Registrar General forthwith to register every return made in conformity with this Ordinance in a book to be called the Register of Newspaper Proprietors. Any person may search and inspect the said book during the hours of business at the office of the Registrar General, and any person may, on payment of a fee of one shilling, require a copy of any entry in, or an extract from, the book to be certified by the Registrar General. The Registrar General shall pay all such fees into the general revenue of the Colony. 8. Every copy of an entry in, and every extract from, the register purporting to be certified by the Registrar General shall be received as conclusive evidence of the contents of the register, so far as the same appear in such copy or extract, without proof of the signature thereto; and every such certified copy or extract shall in all proceedings, civil or criminal, be accepted as sufficient prima facie evidence of all the matters thereby appearing, unless and until the contrary thereof be shown. A certificate purporting to be signed by the Registrar General that he has received no return, or no return before a certain date, with regard to a particular newspaper shall in all proceedings, civil or criminal, be accepted as sufficient prima facie evidence of the fact of such non-receipt. 9. Every person who shall print any newspaper which shall be meant to be published or dispersed, and who shall not print upon the front of every such newspaper, if the same shall be printed on one side only, or upon the first or last leaf of every newspaper which shall consist of more than one leaf, in legible characters, his name and usual place of abode or business, and every person who shall publish or disperse, or assist in publishing or dispersing, any newspaper on which the name and place of abode of the person printing the same shall not be printed as aforesaid, shall, for every copy of such newspaper so printed by him, be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding five pounds. 10. (1) The printer and publisher of every newspaper shall, upon every day upon which such newspaper shall be published, deliver to the Minister of Information and Broadcasting a copy of every paper so published, and of every supplement thereto, Newspapers [Cap. 111 signed by the printer and publisher thereof, and the same shall be filed and kept by the Minister of Information and Broadcasting. (2) When the printer or publisher is a company, the copy aforesaid shall be signed by a director or the secretary of the company. (3) A printer or publisher who shall omit to comply with this section shall be liable, on summary conviction, for each such failure to comply, to a fine not exceeding five pounds.

FORM A. Return made pursuant to section three of the Newspapers Ordinance. Title of Names of Occupations of Places of Business Places of Newspaper. Proprietors. Proprietors. of Proprietors. Residence of Proprietors. I II (Signature of person making the return). This return was received by me on the ....................... day of........................ l9 ............... . Registrar General (or Deputy Registrar General). S.L.-VoL. Il-40 Sec. 3. 1182 Cap. 111] Newspapers 5. Sec. FORM B. Return made pursuant to section five of the Newspapers Ordinance. Names of Names of Occupation Places of Places of Title of Persons who Persons who of new Business of Residence of Newspaper. cease to be become Proprietors. new new Proprietors. Proprietors. Proprietors. Proprietors. (Signature of person making the return.) This return was received by me on the ........................ day of... .................... .19 .............. .. Registrar General (or Deputy Registrar General).