A Press Charter for Britain?

Abstract

Efforts to introduce a ‘closed shop’ in the British newspaper industry have led to a great deal of controversy over the past two years. Also under discussion has been the question of a Press Charter, which some journalists feel is essential under the circumstances if the freedom of the British press is to be safeguarded, while others are opposed to it. Below we print an abbreviated version of a debate broadcast on the BBC programme ‘The Editors’ on 10 October 1976. The participants included two representatives of the National Union of Journalists, the General Secretary of the rival Institute of Journalists, the editors of two leading London papers, spokesmen for the Guild of British Newspaper Editors, the Newspaper Publishers Association and the Newspaper Society, as well as a foreign observer of the British scene in the person of an American correspondent in London. The discussion was chaired by George Scott, editor of the BBC'S weekly magazine The Listener.