Journalism at its best
Monday, September 29th, 2008 by Jon Clements
Despite the abuse hurled at the trade of journalism for some of its less appealing practices, there are times to be thoroughly proud of it.
The drug, Thalidomide, put onto the market in the late 1950s to help pregnant women tackle morning sickness and insomnia, caused appalling birth defects in thousands of children. The drug company had failed to carry out adequate testing before releasing it and then offered paltry compensation to the Thalidomide children who survived.
The Sunday Times, under the editorship of Harold Evans (see pic) and the paper’s investigative Insight team, took on the company in the early 70s and helped to secure a new compensation agreement, while losing advertising revenue and paying legal bills. As an article in this week’s Sunday Times supplement claims, the thalidomiders have an “almost holy reverence” for the newspaper team which fought their cause.
The 50-year anniversary of Thalidomide’s release in the UK is marked by an exhibition of portraits in London in October. And the work of Evans and The Sunday Times remains one of journalism’s finest hours.
