Exhibit JC42 - The Leveson Inquiry

For Distribution to CPsHacks and Dons - Teaching at the London University Journalism School 1919-1939: Its origin,development and influence.The Aftermath of the Second World WarWithin sixteen months of the start of the Second World War the Britishcivil servants were already consulting their First World War files to discoverwhat had been done regarding post-war reconstruction. So a Mr. S.H.Wood wrote to the President of the Board of Education, the RightHonourable Herwald Ramsbottom, suggesting ’steps be taken to prepare ascheme for operating after the war, along the lines adopted in 1918748Reference was made to the autobiography of H.A.L. Fisher (1865-1940) ashe had been responsible, as President, for formulating plans to enablereturning Servicemen to further their civilian careers which the outbreak ofwar had interrupted: ’no more single step will be found to have contributedmore effectively to the spread of the University idea through England thanthe decision of the Government... in 1918... to allot eight million to enableEx-Servicemen to en~oy the privileges of University education... 27,000went to University...The result was the formation of an Interdepartmental StandingCommittee on Further Education and Training with terms of reference: ’Toconsider and report upon the plans to secure, on demobilisation, the furthereducation or training necessary to equip them for appropriate occupationsin civil life.. ,48 The committee took the name of its chairman, Lord Hankey(1877-1963), who had served as Secretary to the Cabinet from 1916 until1938, and it spawned sub-committees for nearly every profession andoccupation throughout the land, from economists to town planners,librarians to electrical engineers, bankers and social workers. Included inthe list were journalists and evidence on their behalf was sought from theJournalists’ Advisory Committee to the Appointments Department of theMinistry of Labour and National Service. The deliberations of these subcommitteeswere deep and far-reaching, producing estimates of theirprofessional manpower requirements in the two years after the cessation ofhostilities. 49The report of the journalists’ sub-committee was published in theInterdepartmental Committee’s Second Report in December 1944. Thisreport is given in three paragraphs of 97 lines of vital evidence submittedby the journalists 5° supporting the ’London University Diploma Course inJournalism (which) proved a valuable training ground and undoubtedlyserved a most useful purpose. ’51 The journalists actually stated that: ’it ishoped the Course will be resumed at no distant date.., and this method ofjournalistic training might with advantage be extended to other Britishuniversities. ’52No reference to this is included in the Second Report of theInterdepartmental Committee, nor to the discussions held between the twocommittees later in the year when the journalists again stressed that theywould favour the extension of courses in journalism along the line of theLondon University School of Journalism. ~3 They also stated that Universitytrained men were likely to go further than boys who entered fromsecondary school. One of the journalists added that: ’the success of suchcourses depended on experienced teachers. The London School had theadvantage of a Director, Mr. Tom Clarke, who was a most experienced157MOD100051328