GOLD MEDAL FOR EDITOR

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32563, 24 March 1971, Page 4

GOLD MEDAL FOR EDITOR

(N.I. fren 4«n—CopvrtsM) LONDON, March 23. Mr Brian Roberts, the editor of the "Sunday Telegraph,” has been awarded the British Institute of Journalists’ Gold Medal “in recognition of his courageous and successful defence of the freedom of the press within the law." Mr Roberts, who is 64 and a fellow and past-president of the institute, was recently acquitted in what became known as “the Fleet Street secrets case,” which arose from prosecutions under an act of 1911. Last month, the Government announced that Lord Franks, the provost of Worcester College, Oxford, and a former Ambassador to the United States, would be chair, man of a committee appointed to review section 2 of the act. Announcing the award the institute said that Mr Roberts was dedicated to the aims for which the gold medal was established, “namely, the breaking down of existing barriers, or otherwise notably easing any unjust burden imposed on journalists in exerting their right to seek and impart information and make fair comment.”