The Press Council
Sir: Judged to be in the wrong by the Press Council you printed their adjudication prefaced by a further attack on Ian Hamilton Finlay in your issue of 17 June. Not content with this you defend your action in the issue of 24 June. You ask if 'any reader feels, like Mr Finlay, that our account was "sneering"?' — I do, for one. And I'm sure a great many more of your readers also feel that it was.
Having corrected only two of the eight errors of fact made in the original review previously, in your issue of 24 June you deigned to correct a third which you described as a 'straightforward error'. The fact that Dr Stephen Bann does not teach French at the University of Kent, but history, might seem an insignificant mistake on its own. If one goes back to McEwen's original review one finds that it wasn't at all insignificant, but was the mainstay of one of the many cheap sneers that review contained. The exhibition, McEwen wrote, had 'a catalogue by Dr Stephen Bann (who teaches French at Canterbury University) that adds new meaning to "french dressing".'
The Press Council's ruling that 'Critics are entitled to be as critical as they wish to be but they should also be accurate,' is an important statement of principle that all Critics should surely respect. And editors too.
Paul Overy 13 Christchurch Square, London E9
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