Acquittal

Britain's most respected newspaper, the London Times, last week found itself a defendant in the criminal dock at Old Bailey. The charge: aiding & abetting corrupt practices during Britain's last election. Just before the election, the Times and other papers had carried, as an advertisement, a special report to stockholders by a group of British-Malayan tin companies which concluded: "The nation, let alone your valuable companies in Malaya, cannot survive if the worm of Socialism is permitted to continue . . ."

After the Conservatives won, Labor officials charged that the ad had illegally influenced the campaign, forced the Crown to file criminal charges under a 1949 law forbidding election expenditures by anyone except candidates or their authorized agents. Argued the Times counsel: If this interpretation of the law is correct, "then it strikes a blow at one of the fundamental liberties of the people--freedom of expression." Last week the Central Criminal Court, after less than two days of testimony, agreed and dismissed the action.

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