June 16.
Your television critic Julie Davidson has attacked the integrity of
our highly successful and popular documentary series Cutting Edge (June
5).
She claims that this series in the hope of stirring up controversy
''has produced some very dodgy documentaries indeed''.
This is a completely unjustified attack on Channel 4's journalism and
I will not let it go unchecked. It was Cutting Edge that exposed abuses
at Ashworth Special Hospital which were vindicated by the subsequent
Blom-Cooper inquiry.
Revelations about the inhumane treatment in another film in a Greek
mental hospital led to an EC inquiry.
Last month a Cutting Edge film about loan sharks in Strathclyde was
praised by the Royal Television Society for the courage of its
journalism.
Of course, we welcome hard and fair criticism of our programmes but
this unwarranted and one-sided attack on a first-class series is
unacceptable. I suggest that your readers look in on Saturday nights to
The Best of Cutting Edge and make up their own minds about this award-
winning series.
John Willis,
Channel 4 Television,
60 Charlotte Street,
London.
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We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
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