NEWSPAPER REPORTING
Siu,—As one connected with the Press, as editor or foreign correspondent, for over twenty years, I wish to associate myself with Professor A. C. Pigou's protest against sensational reporting and the invasion of the privacy of relatives of persons involved in " newsworthy " accidents or tragedy. I assure the professor that journalists have the same decent, human feelings as any other professional body, and do not relish plaguing unfortunate relatives with inquisitions disguised as sympathetic concern. But those who should be attacked are not correspondents, who have no alternative save to obtain what' their editors and proprietors require of them. Outcries against the invasion of personal privacy or distress recur year by year ; they achieve nothing because those who (like Professor Pigou) protest invariably refer vaguely to "the Press "—thus unfairly branding the responsible with the irresponsible.
The public need not feel helpless in the face of photographers who crash into private weddings or reporters who telephone harassed relatives ; they should not uselessly vent their wrath (either physically, as in a recently reported case, or in print) on the men who pester them, but should publish the names of the offending employers. I also throw out the suggestion that those who have been disturbed in the middle of the night should immediately book a personal call (long-distance if necessary) to the employer of the intruder ; newspaper proprietors value their sleep as much as other folk and would soon object to their own medicine. The Writers' and Artists' Year Book lists the names of editors and of many proprietors. Any member of the public who reacts vigorously against sensatiorfal Press persecution will find the overwhelming majority of correspondents lined up behind him. I have no authority to say so, but I am confident that the National Union of Journalists and the Institute of Journalists would take a most sympathetic view of authenticated cases brought to their notice.—Yours, &c., JOSSLEYN HENNESSY (Member of the Institute of Journalists). St. James' Club, Piccadilly, W. z.
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