LETTER : Effects of television ban

From Mr Peter Smalley

Sir: In the present controversy over Melvyn Bragg's article about television and violence there is a very easy way to test the moral integrity of the blame-it-all-on-television brigade. Would they ban television news broadcasts or nature programmes?

In almost every television news broadcast there are scenes of hideous violence from war zones. In almost every nature programme there are scenes of hideous violence from the veldt, or jungle. Do these images from Bosnia corrupt people? Do scenes of lions and hyenas tearing their prey to pieces corrupt?

Ought not the anti-violence campaigners be calling for the censorship of news broadcasts and nature programmes?

Yours etc,

Peter Smalley

London, SW3

7 August