From time to time the Ontario Press Council receives letters suggesting it should address what writers say is dangerous growth of newspaper empires.

The Council replies that it was never assigned the role of dealing with the ownership of Ontario newspapers.

The preamble and objects outlined in the Council's constitution make clear that it is the conduct, practices and performance of newspapers that are within its purview.

Not that the Council lacks a reasonable amount of independence. As Davidson Dunton, its first chairman, said in a presentation to an Ontario legislature committee in 1980, "The founding newspapers took a somewhat radical approach by so organizing the Council makeup that they have never exercised any control over its actions or adjudications."

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