SENSATIONAL PAPERS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29179, 13 April 1960, Page 17

SENSATIONAL PAPERS

Defence By “The Tinies” (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON. April 12. The chairman of “The Times.” Mr Gavin Astor, said in London last night that "The Times” and the mass-circulation “Daily Mirror” both tried to do the same thing—make their readers take an interest and hold an opinion on all sorts of subjects. “The difference is,” he told a meeting of student journalists, “’The Times’ is directed to the board room and the *Daily Mirror' is directed to the factory floor.” He said he questioned those who felt it was a terrible offence to be sensational —if, by sensational, one meant presenting news in a way which would make people want to read it. “Newspaper publishers, proprietors, and journalists, have ■ much greater moral responsibility to the public than manufacturers of soap, motor-cars, or washing machines,” he said. A newspaper was not an ordinary piece of merchandise, but a product of the mind directed at people’s minds. There were instances, not only in the Communist countries, but in Europe and the Commonwealth as well, where governments unsure of themselves had taken action to curb freedom of the press. “We must all be on our guard to see that this does not happen in this country,” he said. “If you lose the freedom of the press, you lose your freedom in general.”