Letter: EU under scrutiny

Sir: At the press conference on 16 March, Jacques Santer said: "Je constate avec beaucoup de satisfaction que je suis entierement blanchi." This means that he considered that he had been "completely cleared" by the report, and not that he considered himself to be "whiter than white".

Mr Santer's reaction to the report might be considered ill-judged. However, the expression "whiter than white", seized upon for its newsworthiness by The Independent, BBC TV news and Channel 4 news among others, served to portray him in an exaggeratedly negative light.

Dr CHRIS DAWSON

Lecturer in French

Manchester Metropolitan University