Press Counsellorship
AI a time when the British press is as ..unpopular with the general public as it has ever been and may soon find itself threatened with restrictive legislation, it might be thought that a Press Council with wider lay representa- tion would seem the best solution for bettering its public image. But Mr. George Murray. the present Chairman of the Press Council, is far from drawing this conclusion. For him, although the appointment of a lay chairman and laY members 'would be in response to a public demand,' the disadvantage would be that 'tile lay element . . . would have no knowledge of the technicalities of newspaper production.' This objection, which is equivalent to saying that no one can judge of the conditions of an occupa. tion he is not immediately engaged seems very extraordinary and, in the light of the recent Times correspondence on the Press' thoroughly frivolous. If Mr. Murray is not prepared to have the mysteries of the Pre° scrutinised by profane eyes he may find the' violated by parliamentary Bill rather sooner than he likes.
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