Have your own voice

Letters

Editor: In response to your invitation to readers to offer their ideas and suggestions regarding what you have referred to as the "proper content" in the Letters page ("A mirror or a window," Bulletin Editorial, March 21), I wish to suggest the following:

At the outset, I wish to say that a Jewish newspaper should primarily reflect the views and feelings of the Jewish community that supports the newspaper. If our own newspaper is not prepared to be the mouthpiece of the Jewish community in general, and Israel in particular, to whom else can we turn to advance the interests and welfare of both sides of this "Jewish coin"?

However, this does not mean to say that you are obliged to slavishly agree with the views of all correspondents who write to you. A newspaper should have its own voice and, within the broad parameters of its policy as defined above, it does have the right to differ wherever it sees fit.

In South Africa, from where I originate, there was a long period of racial separation and oppression called apartheid. Most English newspapers used to vigorously oppose this policy while the Afrikaans newspapers used to staunchly defend it. The debate was heated and, often, acrimonious, in much the same way the Israeli/Palestinian debate is raging today. In South Africa, the newspapers used to reserve the right to reply to certain letters that they felt were misrepresenting or distorting the views of certain individuals, the newspaper or the opposition parties who were opposed to apartheid. Their short and telling responses to these correspondents used to follow at the foot of the letter and were usually printed in italics in order to create a visual differentiation between the body of the letter and the editor's response. There have been many instances where I feel that certain letters that you have published have called for a clear and strong response from you instead of the heavy silence that has usually followed. Like any individual, a newspaper should have the courage of its convictions and speak out when occasion demands.

Abe Katz
Vancouver

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