23 NOVEMBER 1974, Page 5

Appealing scandal

The Royal Commission on the Press invites editors and journalists to suggest ideas that may be incorporated in their eventual report, and one such idea might well be the amendment of the laws curtailing the reporting of the juicier divorce cases. Whatever the social and moral reasons underlying the restrictions, they are clearly not favoured by circulation-hungry newspapers, either 'popular' or 'weighty.' Anyone who doubts this has only to note the space given day by day to the Lady Carolyn Townshend case, freely reported from the

United States.