13 JUNE 1970, Page 34

A surfeit of newsak

Sir: Peter Fleming's admirable essay on newsak (30 May) prompts me to seek con- firmation from you, sir, or from your more mature readers, of a childhood memory that in the 1920s the BBC news announcer at 9 pm would on occasions say: 'There is no news tonight'. Young people are usually sceptical when I tell them about this. But I do not think that this is a faulty recollec- tion.

Richard Stony St Antony's College, Oxford

Sir: Mr Fleming (30 May) seems to have got it all wrong by assuming that the same people listen to all the news broadcasts. The

BBC provides—rightly, I think—for large groups of people who only can, or are

prepared to, listen at different times. Some people (like myself) listen on average four times a day and the repetition is most useful.

I wish that our Dutch news service did as much. Here, I find frequently that if I miss a particular item or detail because (a) the telephone rings, (b) the front door bell rings.

(c) a plane passes overhead with deafening noise (about 1,000 times daily), (d) traffic noise is deafening (only 100 times daily), the Dutch radio news service does not repeat the same item late; and the flashes do not

contain any details, obviously. But if I miss anything of importance (to me) the Etc news, or if I am away all day, I can be sure of being able to hear the missing items later. For this I am most grateful to the BBC.

I am, however, most unreasonably, very angry with them for having changed the broadcasting times of so many of my fav- ourite programmes to time when I Must (must: because of the few news broadcasts) listen -to the Dutch news, or, more im-

portant, to my working hours. Also, I mind Today now including fifteen minutes' sports news and commentary as if not sufficient time is given to sport already. I do mind The Weekly Papers being later, so that either I have to be late on Saturday morning or miss this most informative item.

You can see that, like all listeners, I am completely selfish and simply expect the

BBC to comply with my requirements and wishes. And it is because of this that the oec is most wise and benevolent in pro- viding news and comment upon the news for everybody at the times personally most favourable for every individual listener. Elka Schrijeer Amsterdam