A, An , The or XXX

Britain is one of the few countries in the world where a newspaper can be started by anyone without a licence. the press is not state-controlled and there is no government censorship. This does not mean, of course, that newspapers can write exactly what they like. There are laws in Britain that everyone, including newspapers, have to obey: xxx laws of libel, for example, or about xxx state secrets. On the whole, however, the press has considerable freedom.Interest in controlling the press did not really start until 1949, when a Royal Commission was appointed to look into xxx public criticism of the newspapers. the commission decided firmly against state control, but did recommend that the newspaper industry itself should set up something called the Press Council as a kind of watchdog. In fact it was to be a watchdog with xxx two heads, for the newspapers, but at the same time make sure that the newspapers themselves did not lose their freedom.the early Press Council consisted only of xxx newspaper people, but this began to change in 1963 and the present Council has over thirty members, xxx half of whom are from the newspaper industry, the other half from the general public. The members include a nurse, a postman, a university professor, a retired policeman amongst xxx others. There is also a chairman who is independent.