Free the press

NORMAN Plaisted is right to feel incensed about Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, and all that it entails. (SWA, Tuesday, January 10). We’ve taken it for granted for so long that we have no idea what the freedom of the press means to us. Especially the local press. Local press are part of t–—he community. Local press are more likely to stick to the facts than the nationals, knowing that they are accountable to people right where they are. They don’t operate at a remove. Local press not only communicates within the community, it acts like a social glue. It carries notices about small, but significant events to a wider audience than they could reach by their own efforts. It keeps us in touch in a way that can’t be matched by anything else – social media included. If Section 40 comes into being, local press could not afford to carry on. It simply couldn’t carry the burden of the ‘compensation chasers’ (Mr Plaisted’s term). Don’t let’s be quiet about it.