How to Deal with
BY RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL this is their wish. .
In the case of the Nigerian set of Siamese twins, the press managed to get into the ward and a form of auction was con- ducted to see which paper could secure the exclusive rights of the mother's story even though she had said that she did not wish to see them. In the case of the Keighley twins, the hospital was invested and the twins had to be moved to another hospital involving a delay of two days in the operation.
The public have a perfect right to feel curious, and there is no law to forbid the press from pandering to their curiosity. Equally, no one is under any obligation to supply details about his private life, and everyone is entitled to the full defence of the law and the constabulary in resisting any unwarrant- able intrusion into his life or pressure on him or his family. lead their own lives with some degree of privacy. And people in the public eye are just as much entitled to privacy in their private lives as are ordinary people.
One of the difficulties which people experience when the press suddenly intrude on them is that there are always some papers who ask for interviews and will not take 'No' for an answer. The reporter blurts out some assertion and even if the victim says 'No comment' an unscrupulous paper can make a headline and a story : 'Mr. Smith did not deny the report that he had hit his wife over the head with a hammer.'
There is only one method to employ against such tactics: and even this method cannot be guaranteed to succeed always. That is, to say, 'Please write, state your business and ask for an appointment.' In such circumstances papers seldom write. and if they do it is quite simple to reply with the following formula : 'I never discuss private matters such as those to which you refer with strangers. therefore fear it would be a waste of your time to make the appointment you suggest.'
I recommend the same method for all inquiries over the telephone. On no account let yourself get involved in a con- versation, however harmless, because, before you know where you are, you will find yourself trapped and in the headlines. Of course, in all the foregoing I am speaking of the more dis- reputable sections of the press. There is no reason why people should not at any time receive the representatives of such papers as the Manchester Guardian, The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Times and the Observer, or repre- sentatives of other papers whom they know and trust.
If your house is besieged by scores of photographers and reporters, it is probably best to telephone the police and in- form them that the traffic is being obstructed outside your house and to ask that a constable be sent to disperse the crowd. Though some sections of the press seek to terrorise public ser- vants like the police into believing that the press have some rights superior to that of other of Her Majesty's subjects, there is no warranty for such pretensions. Indeed, the Lord Chief Justice has more than once made it plain that this is not so. It is quite certain that any honourable Chief Constable will always go to the rescue of any individual who is being molested by reporters and photographers, just as if he were being molested by any other kind of mob. Sketch. However, anyone who is badly treated by the press should certainly write to the Press Council, whose address and telephone number may be found in the telephone directory, as there are grounds for thinking that the Press Council may gradually develop into a more effective body. Equally they might report the facts to The Times, the Observer or the Spectator—papers which are not wholly governed by the cartel arrangement of 'Dog don't eat dog.'
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