Bends in the road
THE sage William Deedes used to get lawyers' letters threatening ruinous actions for libel, if he did not at once retract something on the City pages of the news- paper he was editing. As one who wrote for those pages, I like his response. 'I drew pleasure from putting such letters in the pending basket', Lord Deedes writes (in the newsletter of brokers Gerrard Vivian Gray.) The lawyers would advise, but he thought and thinks it crucial that City editors should not be intimidated from doing their duty by their readers. He worries on their behalf about the renewed pressure for a law of privacy. Already those with something to hide can and do use injunctions against publications, copy- right actions and allied devices. 'It will be difficult', warns Lord Deedes, 'to devise a law on privacy which will not at the same time offer shelter to scoundrels, and so deny the public proper protection. The man running a bucket shop will be the first to use a law of privacy against enquiry into his affairs. His lawyers will know every bend in the road.' A pity to engineer new bends.
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