What Salient is — what it is not

There appears to be a great amount of confusion among: students, regarding Salient. This, of course, is an inevitable consequence, arising out of the average student's ignorance about newspapers. Just what the function of a newspaper is, whose opinion represents, and who is in control; it seems, most students do not know. This is an attempt to clarify the issue — to acquaint the student with Salient policy and administration.

First of all, we must argue that Salient is a newspaper. Many students find it difficult to realise this: but Salient is not a fortnightly broadsheet composed of salacious and partisan articles. No does Salient exist, to slant the attitudes and ideals of an "irresponsible few". As a newspaper, Salient is under an obligation to report and comment. We must be fair in our opinion of others; we must be factual in our accounts of meetings and incidents.

Salient — as is the case in any newspaper — is under no obligation to print any material or correspondence that is forwarded to it. Every effort is made, naturally, to print as much as is possible contributions from outside readers, reports from staffers, correspondence, editorial opinion, all, at some stage of the game, have suffered and will continue to suffer. There are varied reasons for this. Most of the time, we find we have too much copy for the number of pages we can afford to print (Salient is in the red as it is). Other times the copy is illegible, written on both sides of the paper, libellous hopelessly out-of-date, is received after the deadline, and is irrelevant. Copy, it will be seen, must suffer. Few students have had cause to complain however. Salient has, to date, produced more issues than any other student paper in the country; it is larger, contains more news and articles.

There has been imposed no censorship this year. No articles of correspondence have been rejected because the views expressed, disagreed with those of the Editor. Some articles have had to be abridged, others rejected for reasons of libel and slander. Students must realise, that as far as the law of the land is concerned, it is the Editor who stands in the dock, should a libel action be taken out.

Just what is the Editor's job and to whom is he responsible? The Editor is appointed by the Executive and is responsible to the Association. He is responsible for producing a regular newspaper. He is not responsible to anyone for what he prints, what he does not print. He is not responsible to anyone for the opinion of the newspaper (editorial opinion is. by definition, the opinion of the newspaper). He is responsible for appointing the staff of Salient, and is responsible for their published statements. The Editor (as all editors must) favours no one person's views, no minority.

Most students assume Salient to be financed wholly by the student body, out of the Association fund. This is an incorrect assumption. An issue of Salient costs anything between £l 10 and £160 to produce. One copy of Salient therefore, costs 2/-; is sold for 6d. Readers pay one-quarter of the total cost. Our subsidy from the general Association fund accounts for another 8d. The other 10d (making up the total cost of 2/-) is accounted for by Salient staff: the staff that sells advertising, organises careers supplements, thinks up payable gimmicks. This year, Salient staff has accounted for £600 in this way. We can see now, there is a 3:4:5 ratio (sales of readers. Association subsidy, Salient staff ventures of financial assistance. Perhaps those students who believe Salient staff privileged; who believe Salient should not have a policy; who believe Salient staff have too much copy in the newspaper; who cry "Censorship!" and "Bigotry!"; perhaps these people might think again, realising that Salient staff account for more of our income than does any other one source.

Many students are of the opinion that—being paid members of the Association — they are entitled to have opinions expressed in Salient. Quite true. The columns of Salient are open to all readers. Students should demarcate between freedom of expression and physical limitations. Again, many students would like to see Salient policy determined by a majority of students. This is a ridiculous impossibility. Physically impossible for the reason: a newspaper cannot be administered by a clan of its readers. Ridiculous because, Salient would cease to be a newspaper. Who is going to decide what? Should Club X have a column each issue? Should John T. and Mary Q. and a thousand others, all have a right to decide editorial opinion?

It has been suggested, a newspaper can judge its effect and worth on the amount of rebuke and scorn received. Whether this is true or not, it must be pointed out, Salient is designed to report news and articles of importance, of interest to the reader (we say reader, not student, because many Salient correspondents and readers are not students). If, by a show of scorn, we are proving to arouse interest, then by all means, let us be scorned!

Salient is still in a formative stage; we are still settling into a proper newspaper framework. It has taken months of arduous work to get where we are now, in fact: the best (by the consent of the other centres) student newspaper in the country. It is only through the concerted efforts of a handful of (unpaid, for the most part, unpraised) students, who are willing to devote many hours a week to the paper, Salient is what it is.

It is an enormously difficult task, trying to please every student, every taste, every ideal. We do our best to find a happy compromise; to remain as neutral as the circumstances allow in student politics; to even get the newspaper out every fortnight. All this, aside from the fact that the editors and staff of Salient are not remunerated, are at University not, in the first instance, to produce a newspaper.

—M.J.W.