Letter: Vegan settled libel action

AN ARTICLE profiling the playwright Gordon Newman (' 'Carnivores enjoy the same pleasure as child murderers' ', 30 January) misleadingly referred to a libel action I took against him in respect of his 1989 play, Here is the News. In the article, Newman says, 'Sadly, it wasn't fought: the BBC settled'. The clear implication is that there were good grounds for fighting the case, and that Mr Newman has dissociated himself from the settlement or the apology made by the BBC.

The opposite is the case. Mr Newman himself settled the case on 3 May 1990, and apologised. His solicitors stated on his behalf that 'Gordon Newman accepts that this action was properly brought and adds his sincere and unqualified apologies to those of the BBC'.

Duncan Campbell

Edinburgh