THE INDEPENDENT AS AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER: A GREAT STORY

Twenty years ago today, the first issue of 'The Independent' rolled off the presses.

Stephen Glover, the first editor, remembers the day the paper was born.

Roy Greenslade was yersteday night in London at the 20th anniversary party of The Independent:

"Editor Simon Kelner led off the speeches.

His final anecdote got across the message that the paper remains as independent, in both spirit and practice, as it was when it first appeared in October 1986.

He told of a meeting with Tony Blair's communications chief, Alastair Campbell, in the presence of Tony O'Reilly, ceo of the paper's owning company, Independent News & Media (INM), O'Reilly's wife, Chryss Goulandris, and the ceo of INM's UK division, Ivan Fallon.

The conversation was about The Independent's hostility to the invasion of Iraq, said Kelner, so Campbell asked whether any of them supported the war.

All but Kelner put their hands up.

So, said Campbell, the proprietor, the proprietor's wife and the chief executive don't agree with the editor: "Now that's what I call an independent newspaper".