Background

Following an editorial in Salient on the Anti-Tour demonstrations a letter was received by the Association demanding an apology for defamation of Detective Sergeant Lines.

The Executive met over the incident and, on examining the evidence available then, unanimously recommended to the SRC that no apology be made. The SRC moved a motion to this effect.

Term ended the next day and in the following week further evidence was presented by the Association's solicitors which satisfied the Executive that Lines had not been involved in the punching incident. The Executive decided, therefore, to apologise for this allegation (2 dissents, 1 abstention). Les Atkins, deputy editor of Salient, resigned.

The Executive met again to consider the form of the apology and over two meetings decided that a full apology and withdrawal (2 dissents) should be made and that it should be in the form printed on page 3 of this issue. The same day David Harcourt handed in his resignation as editor of Salient. It therefore became the responsibility of the Publications Officer to produce Salient.