I HAVE for many years enjoyed the freedom to write and express my views.

Sometimes they are accepted for publication, but even when they are not I cannot help feeling some relief at having removed a weight from my mind.

I have always been aware that there are some subjects where one must take great care when expressing a view, for lurking around somewhere is a committee, a board or some kind of tribunal who may haul me before them, perhaps to accuse me of some 'ism.'

Writers and broadcasters have to be very careful in what they say or write. In other words the freedom of speech for which vast numbers have fought and died is a freedom now in mortal danger.

I remember back in 1945 speaking to a German prisoner who came from a non-Nazi family.

He told me about his brother, a family man with two children attending a local school. Like children do they chatted to friends about what Daddy had said to Mummy as they sat at breakfast.

One evening some men in dark leather trench coats collected Daddy and he was never seen again.

I subsequently discovered that there were many such happenings throughout Germany.

I'm certainly not saying anything so nasty could happen here, but heavy fines, imprisonment and loss of career could.

The subject of free speech is now in the news and a well-known TV personality stands accused.

Whether we agree with what he says, surely we must all agree to support the vitally important principle of free speech and fight against politically correct censorship in all its forms.

T.E. MATTOCKS

Bridge Street, Taunton.