Notes
The Head of Advertising Control at the Independent Broadcasting Authority,
Mr Harry Theobalds, once achieved fame N these columns for saying, in an offhand way, that the Spectator would not be allow- ed to advertise on television. We therefore sent a representative to the Advertising Conference held by the IBA last week, too
check the current position. The Conference was devoted to the control of com- mercial advertising, but during morning coffee Mr Theobalds reminisced with engaging candour about the political side of 'us work. When he started reading the Spec- tator he realised he had been wrong. `I got hooked on it. I buy it every week. I think n's a very good magazine. I like Taki.' Of course we could advertise. He remembered writing
to 'Geoffrey Chandler' to invite an
application. The only papers the IBA had !ver banned were the Daily Worker, Morn- .14g Star and Tribune: they were committed !c' Particular parties, and were therefore Judged to fall foul of the (extraordinarily vague) provision in the IBA code that 'no advertisement may be inserted by or on behalf of any body, the objects whereof are holly or mainly of a political nature, and no advertisement may be directed towards taY Poli rxisnze tical nd.' Asked whether he would Lao Ma Today, he said that as far as he could tell without seeing a copy it would certainly be turned down: the title alone showed is what sort of paper it was. As Marx- mt.?? Today supports the Communist Party, s r Theobalds would probably stand by his bilap judgment even after he had read it. (Tit the objection to all censorship, that it eFends on the judgment of the censor, re- Talus. Why should not individuals be their uwn censors?
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