Journalism

Chesterton was a journalist; several of his published books are actually collections of his journalistic articles. I am currently reading one of these, 'All things considered'. Interestingly enough, quite some of these articles are not only readable, they are even relevant in our times.
Today, I read two articles about journalism: 'Limericks and counsels of perfection' and 'Anonymity and further counsels'. In these articles, Chesterton gives some advice about how to 'reform the Press', or 'making journalism honest'. Apparently, even then, the papers were not always working with the highest ethical standards.
'First', Chesterton says, 'I would make it a law, if there is none such at the present, by which an editor, proved to have published false news without reasonable verification, should simply go to prison'. Deliberate false information should be legally punishable.
'Secondly', he states, we need 'a distinction, in the matter of reported immorality, between those sins which any healthy man can see in himself and those which he had better not see anywhere'. It should not be permitted to 'terrify and darken the fancy of the young with innumerable details' of 'some obscene insanity'.
The third point is anonymity: in general, unless we are speaking of a leading article representing the opinion of the newspaper itself, we should know who wrote the article. Furthermore, the name of the proprietor of the newspaper should also be 'printed upon every paper'. We should be able to know if 'any obvious interests' are being served.
Finally, Chesterton would like to see the editor's freedom in selecting and refusing letters 'of definite and practical complaint' curtailed: the paper should be 'a mode of the expression of the public', not his personal work of art.