14 AUGUST 1971, Page 6

Central Criminal Court Reporters

There is a small and well identified group of professional journalists whose chief job it is to report trials at the Central Criminal Court (the Old Bailey). These accredited correspondents at the Old Bailey are men of the greatest professional and personal integrity. It has been brought to our attention that words used by Mr Tony Palmer in his account of the Oz trial published in The Spectator dated July 31 could have been taken to refer to these gentlemen. This was not his intention in writing these words, nor ours in printing and publishing them. This statement is to make it quite clear that nothing that has been written in The Spectator by Mr Palmer or by anyone else referred to these Central Criminal Court correspondents.