16 AUGUST 1997, Page 16

Mr Alan Clark

IN THE final paragraph of Mr Alan Clark's article last week, headed 'Pressed to Death', on how an intrusive press can drive its victims to suicide, we replaced the phrase 'Her Royal Highness' in Mr Clark's original with 'Diana, Princess of Wales' without Mr Clark's authorisation. We assumed that Mr Clark was obviously referring to the Princess of Wales, and that in what was for him an uncharacteris- tic lapse, he had momentarily forgotten that she no longer had the title of Her Royal Highness. It was on this assumption that we stated on our cover that Mr Clark's article named 'the famous person whom the press would most like to drive to suicide'. Mr Clark is of the view that this assumption should not have been made. We apologise to him for making it, and regret any distress which the alter- ation and the cover has caused him.

The paragraph, as originally submitted by Mr Clark, should have appeared as fol- lows: And still elusive, though occasionally one must assume in the telescopic sight of every editor, is the ultimate trophy, the most brightly plumaged of all: to accelerate, and then to be the first to capture, the sudden death of Her Royal Highness in 'unex- plained circumstances'.