Poachers and gamekeepers
Sir: Donald McLachlan (15 August) says there is no compelling reason why providing information to the press should not be done by the ablest civil servants on their way up the ladder. He earlier, in his compliments to Trevor Lloyd-Hughes, provides a telling reason to the contrary. Lloyd-Hughes's back- ground in the Lobby was, it seems, a factor in his popularity and efficiency as press secre- tary to Harold Wilson.
Employers of information officers in industry and commerce do not, as a rule, share McLachtan's view. They recognise that the journalist is best equipped to provide a service for journalists. Their information officer's job is not only to deal with journal- ists' questions. It is his job, too, to dig news from his departments. That would not be easy for the man not trained to recognise news. Even the Foreign Office sometimes finds it helpful to attract journalists by civil service competition to the diplomatic service. Appointment of journalists as information officers was not a phenomenon of Wilson's government. Many of the NUJ'S 200 or more members in government departments were recruited by earlier Tory administrations. They have helped to teach senior civil ser- vants that the public needs to know more than those civil servants think the public ought to know.
Ronald Hallett Assistant Secretary, National Union of Journalists, London wcl
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