U.N.E.S.C.O.

Press, 30 January 1984, Page 16

U.N.E.S.C.O.

Sir,—The only sources of information for Chris Reynolds’ belief (January 25) that “the Soviet media failed to report the number of deaths on the Korean airliner or the figures for the U.S.S.R. grain harvest,” unless he is a regular reader of Soviet newspapers, are reports by Western news agencies. Soviet citizens have read reports of Yuri Andropov’s ill-health; the “dozens of rumours” are figments of Western news agencies’ propaganda. Despite its “trenchant criticism of the establishment,” the “New Statesman,” as a capitalist commercial enterprise, is as much a part of the establishment as Rupert Murdoch’s stable of newspapers. Behind its veneer of “trenchant criticism of the establishment” it is as staunch a defender of capitalism, as bitter a foe of the Soviet Union’s socialism as Rupert Murdoch himself, albeit its literary style aspires to greater elegance of tone than the general run of Murdoch newspapers. — Yours, etc., M. CREEL. January 25, 1984.