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PRESS ACT, 1910 PRESS ACT, 1910 1 of 1910 9th February, 1910 An Act to provide for the better control of the Press. Whereas it is necessary to provide for the better control of the Press; It is hereby enacted as follows:- STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS PUBLISHED WITH THE BILL 1. The continue recurrence of murderous outrages has shown that the measures which have hitherto been taken to deal with anarchy and sedition require strengthening and that the real search of the evil has not as yet been touched. Since 1907, the policy of the Government has been directed to the steady enforcement of the ordinary law against sedition. Prosecutions have invariably proved successful but have produced no permanent improvement in the tone of the Press, a certain section of which has continued, both by openly seditious writing and by suggestion and veiled incitement, to inculcate hostility to British rule. There is no lack of evidence that the series of crimes which preceded and have followed the passing of Act VII of 1908 is directly traceable to these influences, to which the authors of the outrages-young men of the educated middle class-are peculiarly susceptible. This propaganda has been carried on not only by means of newspapers but by leaflets, pamphlets and the like, rendering it necessary to assume control over printing-presses as well as newspapers. 2. The main divisions of the Bill which has been prepared with this object are -
(1) Control over presses and means of publication;
(II) control over publishers;
(III) control over the importation into British India and the transmission by the post of objectionable matter;
(IV) the suppression of seditious or objectionable newspapers, books or other documents wherever found. 3. I. The first of these objects it is sought to attain as follows :-
(1) all proprietors of printing-presses making a declaration for the first time under