Short Takes

-- Because a tough press code inhibits critics of the Papadopoulos regime, most newspapers in Greece now imply criticism only by withholding praise. Such discretion never appealed to Yiannis Horn, editor-publisher-owner of the English-language Athens News (circ. 6,000). He not only prints statements by opposition politicians but also punctuates stories with blunt editor's notes ("We demand an explanation from the regime on this"). Last October Horn headlined a story on Spiro Agnew's visit: BOMBS, RECRUITED SCHOOLCHILDREN

GREET AGNEW. Unfortunately for Horn, News makeup men inadvertently left out the paragraph reporting the protest bombings and the enforced turnout of pupils. Because the article as printed did not back up the headline, the government convicted Horn of practicing "negligent" journalism. Last week Horn, 60, who is in poor health, began serving a 28-week sentence. But authorities released him after two days pending an appeal.

-In an age when working journalists round the world are seeking louder voices in the editing and publishing processes, the 15 staffers of the Burlington (Iowa) Hawk-Eye (circ. 22,000) have received an unusual concession without a fight. Editor-Publisher John McCormally is not only soliciting their nominations before selecting a new managing editor but is offering them veto power over his final choice. "They'll be helping to select a boss," he says, "while I'll only be hiring a subordinate."

-For much of its 34-year history, the Nieman Foundation program for journalists at Harvard has carried high prestige. Nieman fellowships offered newsmen an academic year of leisured study and exposure to prominent people with provocative viewpoints. More recently, however, some Nieman fellows have been critical of Dwight Sargent, 55, a former editorial-page editor for the old New York Herald Tribune, who has been the Nieman curator since 1964. Under Sargent, it is said, the program has lacked the verve it had under the 25-year leadership of Louis Lyons. Now Sargent has resigned, and will be replaced in September by James Thomson, 40, Harvard history lecturer and a perceptive Asian scholar. Though Thomson is not a journalist, he was chairman of the Yale Daily News in his undergraduate days, contributes frequently to the Atlantic, and served with insight as China analyst for ABC during the Nixon visit to Peking. His assignment will be to restore close links between the Nieman fellows and an aggressive academic community.

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