Andrew Bent: Media Hall of Fame honours press freedom pioneer

Readers with a low opinion of the media will think it appropriate press pioneer Andrew Bent had a criminal record.

The only known image of Andrew Bent, by an unknown artist in 1830, above, was printed by Bent himself. It depicts Bent (seated) being stood over by a demon-like figure representing solicitor Gamaliel Butler, who was pursuing Bent for libel.

The father of the free press, a man dubbed Tasmania’s Benjamin Franklin two centuries ago, came from a criminal background and had the debauched looks to match.

Readers with a low opinion of the media will think it entirely appropriate press pioneer Andrew Bent was sent to Australia as a convict and imprisoned again during his years as a free man — twice by lieutenant governor George Arthur for criminal libel and once for breaching Arthur’s press licensing law, known as Bent’s act.

Bent’s role in standing up against government tyranny has been recognised by the Australian Media Hall of Fame. The Melbourne Press Club last month announced 19 new historical induc­tees from the smaller states, joining 163 others from NSW and Victoria inducted since 2012.

Melbourne Press Club chief executive Mark Baker said, “The stories of these remarkable men and women — and their achievements — show the abiding importance of great journalism in our society and why we should celebrate and defend it.” Another 48 inductees will be revealed at a ceremony in Melbourne on Friday, November 16.

The Age’s former editor Mike Smith argues “the battle for press freedom in Australia was joined around 1.40pm on Friday, 4 June 1824 at Hobart Town”. That was the moment Henry Emmett, government censor and “editor” of The Hobart Town Gazette, signed a letter of complaint to Arthur after Bent started his press without approval from Emmett of page proofs.

Bent, born in London in 1790, was convicted in October 1810 of burglary and transported to Sydney. He arrived on the Guildford in January 1812 and was transferred to the Ruby, which arrived in Hobart Town on February 2. An apprentice printer in London, the short and decidedly ugly Bent, probably crippled with rickets, was employed by government printer George Clark as an assistant, bringing out two short-lived newspaper titles before Clark was dismissed and replaced by Bent.

Bent’s life took a turn for the better in 1816, a year the Tasmanian Historical Research Association says was critical to the early life of the colony. The colonial brig Kangaroo, commanded by Lieutenant Charles Jeffreys, arrived in late April from Sydney.

Bent had hoped the ship would bring news of his pardon — recommended the previous November by then lieutenant governor Thomas Davey — but was disappointed to be told NSW governor Lachlan Macquarie was behind in his paperwork. But Kangaroo did bring a supply of new type for his press, Bent’s future wife, Mary Kirk, and a story from Jeffreys that would help make Bent’s name back in London.

Davey, unpopular with Macquarie in Sydney, had begun sending direct reports to London printed by Bent, who was acknowledged for his skilled workmanship. It turned out Macquarie was unhappy with Jeffreys too and had written to London urging the return of Kangaroo and Jeffreys. Bent entered the picture again.

In reality, Jeffreys was a smuggler with a keen eye for profit. Under Davey’s watch, Bent published a concocted story about Jeffreys’ naval exploits in The Hobart Town Gazette, copies of which Jeffreys sent to his father in England. The story was reprinted in the Hampshire Chronicle and, after Jeffreys’ return, in more mainstream papers. In this way he and Bent, the publisher of the Gazette, gained notoriety in London independent of Sydney and of Macquarie.

By 1818 Bent was the married publisher of a viable newspaper, father of one — eventually to be 10 — and a prosperous member of Hobart society. He was formally pardoned in 1821 and life was good until the arrival of Arthur as lieutenant governor in May 1824.

Bent’s Gazette would end up as the Hobart Mercury but only after a protracted battle with Arthur, who disapproved of Bent’s aspirations for the colony. For Arthur Van Diemen’s Land was just an island jail.

“Arthur’s hostility to Bent was virtually instantaneous with Emmett’s complaint of Friday, June 4,” according to a paper by historian Craig Collins. “For Arthur, convicts had for too long been treated too leniently in this place — something which was about to change.” Despite the pardon, Arthur was determined not to treat Bent as though the stain of transportation had been wiped.

Newspapers across the colonies at the time were printed only under the authority and censorship of the colonial governors. Arthur saw Bent’s sacking of Emmett as an opportunity to reassert control over the Gazette.

Bent resisted. The paper was printed on land he owned outright in Elizabeth Street, he had completely repaid a government loan to buy his press and type outright, and he had established the Gazette with his own money in 1816.

Bent appointed 23-year-old Evan Henry Thomas as editor, replacing Emmett, and sent Thomas to Sydney to convince governor Thomas Brisbane he was the rightful owner of the Gazette. In August, without consulting Arthur, Brisbane validated Bent’s claim.

By October that year William Charles Wentworth and Robert Wardell were looking to launch the Australian [no relation to this newspaper of the same name] in Sydney as a private venture. Its first edition was October 14, six months after Bent’s first “uncensored” edition. A week later The Sydney Gazette was freed of censorship and Brisbane wrote to London saying it was expedient to try “the experiment of the full latitude of the freedom of the press”.

For the next year Arthur had no choice but to pay to have government advertisements printed in Bent’s Gazette, which was openly campaigning for a big and free Tasmania and publishing editorials that, though generally respectful of authority, nonetheless contained genuine criticisms

Collins writes: on the morning of June 25, 1825, having published edition 477 the previous day, Bent was quickly alerted to “the delivery around town of another version of The Hobart Town Gazette”, the same size as his own and also marked edition No 477. The new paper, full of praise for Arthur, also contained the news Bent had been sacked as government printer.

Arthur then launched a series of criminal libel prosecutions against Bent, one over a piece by Thomas on October 8 the previous year calling Arthur “the Gideonite of tyranny”.

The case was heard by military tribunal under Arthur’s command and Bent was convicted. Bent’s wife Mary, caring for five children under eight, kept the paper going under a new masthead, the Colonial Times. Arthur also introduced a newspaper licensing act known as Bent’s law, but the press in London mocked him for it.

Arthur refused to licence Bent, who continued to publish the Colonial Times as an advertising sheet only. On Christmas Eve 1828, after being prosecuted again for publishing his advertising-only newspaper, Bent heard from England that Arthur’s licensing law would have to be repealed as contrary to the laws of England.

Bent revived the Colonial Times as a real newspaper but was sued for libel again in 1830 and eventually sold the paper. He moved to Sydney and set up Bent’s News, which failed. He took his family to Kempsey on the NSW mid-north coast in 1841 and ran a hotel that burned down.

He died in 1851 in the Sydney Benevolent Society Asylum.

Chris Mitchell is a member of the advisory panel for the Media Hall of Fame.