JOHN SHELDON,
Madam, - One of the pleasures of my frequent visits to Ireland is the opportunity to get the different perspective on world news put forward by your paper.
Page 11 of your edition of Saturday, October 19th on terrorism was an example of the opinions I like to read, even if I don't always agree with all of them.
What I was, however, sorry to see was that such opinions should come under the heading of "World News". Everything on that page was in my view - and, I venture to suggest, the view of any reasonable person - wholly opinion. If the page had been headed, as was page 12, with the words "Opinion and Analysis", I would have had no complaint. As it was, opinion was masquerading as news.
Far too many newspapers, as well as radio and television stations, put forward their views and opinions under the guise of news but I would have expected that a paper with as good a reputation as your own would have been very careful to maintain the distinction.
Therefore, I would like your reassurance that in future when I pick up The Irish Times, and when I look at a page headed "News", what I will get is the world or local news dispassionately given. I can then turn with pleasure to the pages which offer the Editor's or other people's opinion or analysis in the certain knowledge that the paper is making a proper distinction between the two categories. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN SHELDON, Cowley Street, London SW1.