Freedom of the Press is one of the last crumbling pillars of our democracy but it is still not free of obligations.

The Argus is entitled to campaign vigorously for a football stadium at Falmer but you must maintain fairness and balance.

In the words of CP Scott, a famous Manchester Guardian editor, "Comment is free, but facts are sacred".

It is questionable whether balance was maintained on a day during the recent Labour Party conference when The Argus devoted its two letters pages entirely to letters supporting Falmer, with the object - unashamedly acknowledged by Simon Bradshaw in his Feedback

column - of influencing John Prescott and the politicians.

And beyond question is the fact that The Argus crusade on behalf of the Albion has brought bias to its news pages.

The latest example is the prominence given to reports in which those in favour of a stadium for Falmer attack Lewes District Council because it intends to spend £35,000 to oppose the Falmer plan at a forthcoming public inquiry into alternative sites.

The Falmer campaigners argue that this is a waste of Lewes taxpayers' money. They were supported by an Argus editorial which argued that if Lewes District Council's case was strong enough at the previous inquiry, it is still strong enough at any subsequent inquiry without the need to spend £35,000 to make it.

The Argus is entitled to that curious opinion. But what you have not reported in your news pages, although it should not be difficult for a campaigning newspaper to discover, is that Brighton and Hove City Council has allocated a minimum of £25,000 to £30,000 for this forthcoming inquiry in order to make its case in support of Falmer as the only site for a stadium for the Albion.

According to its logic, The Argus should surely point out by the same reasoning that if the City Council's case was strong enough at the

previous inquiry, it should not be necessary to spend this amount of Brighton and Hove taxpayers' money to state it again.

-Edward Goring, Ovingdean