From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.
The name of the footballer is now so widely known that it has become absurd to maintain the injunction, let alone enforce it. A decision by Mr Grieve not to intervene will no doubt result in a fresh burst of publicity. It will, however, be one of the easiest judgment calls he has ever had to make. stephen parkinson Head, Criminal and Regulatory Department, Kingsley Napley Sir, It is disappointing to see Matthew Parris (Opinion, May 21) joining the self-serving storm of synthetic media outrage about the protection of privacy. He argues that it should be possible to publish anything that is true. No, it should not. There are comparatively few cases where the public has any right to know all the details of anyone’s private life. Increased newspaper sales and the satisfaction of prurient interest should not be allowed to outweigh the humiliation of people (and their families) whose private activities have absolutely no bearing on national security or the performance of vital public duties. Parris quotes Dr Johnson: “Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every man has a right to knock him down.” That may have been a valid point of view in the context (Johnson was speaking of religious opinions) and before the advent of the mass media. In the 21st century, once something has been published the harm is already done and the only redress is potentially ruinous resort to the libel courts. But regardless of the era, has compassion no place? I prefer a much older dictum: “Let him who is without sin among you throw the first stone.”
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