Jon Slattery

Media Quotes of the Year 2024: From Musk mocks media to Murdoch predicts death of newspapers

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 12:07:00 +0000

It was a year of elections in the UK and US. Trump is back, so is Labour. Elon Musk mocks mainstream media and Rupert Murdoch predicts when the last newspaper will be printed. My Media Quotes of the Year 2024 are up on InPublishing magazine.

Media Quotes of the Year 2023: InPublishing

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 08:56:00 +0000

It was a year marked by reporters covering conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine, Rupert Murdoch stepping down, AI threatening journalists’ jobs and press freedom under pressure. My Media Quotes of the Year are up on InPublishing. You can read them here.

Press Freedom in the UK: The costs of libel actions

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 13:54:00 +0000

I've written a new article for InPublishing magazine on press freedom, which you can read here. As press freedom in the UK has no constitutional protection, there is a constant battle to fight off restrictions. There are some victories tempered by defeats but over it all looms the massive costs and financial risks of libel actions.

The article covers an unlikely press freedom hero who brought down a former Government minister over his tax affairs despite legal threats; how the notorious leader of the Wagner Group was able to sue a journalist in the UK; a privacy victory for the BBC; journalists wrongly arrested and detained by the police while covering demonstrations; and how the defamation laws could be reformed.

Press Gazette's Jean Morgan: A personal tribute

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 13:15:00 +0000

This is the tribute I gave to my former Press Gazette colleague and friend Jean Morgan at her funeral in Cornwall on December 20.

How do you begin a tribute to Jean Morgan? You could start by saying she was a brilliant journalist. But I thought I’d take a leaf out of her book and just get straight to the point: And say… I really loved Jean.

I loved the sheer force of her personality. She was outspoken, funny, sharp, salty, direct, intelligent, and sometimes quite outrageous. She could be blunt and never ever backed down when she thought she was in the right.

She was also a tremendously loyal and generous friend.

I’ve had many, many ex-colleagues contacting me to say how much they learned from Jean and how much she meant to them.

Adam Smallman said: "A remarkable journalist, pin-sharp, a dear friend, hugely missed” and Steve Busfield: "I learned so much from her. She worked contacts relentlessly and had a great nose for a story - and did it with such charm.”

The reason Jean made such an indelible impression on people is down to what made her a terrific reporter. Her curiosity and her ability to ask probing questions. This meant many of her colleagues came in for a Morgan grilling.

One remembers telling Jean she had broken up with her partner, only for Jean to ask “Now then, is there a third party involved?” She was always after the real story.

To celebrate Jean’s 80th birthday we went out for a meal with the family and I put a picture on Facebook of Jean holding up my baby granddaughter Rose, looking her straight in the eyes (see pic above). Martin McNamara, an ex-colleague, captioned it: "Well if you don't want to be quoted can we at least talk off the record?"

Former Press Gazette editor Ian Reeves says: “Jean’s great strength as a reporter – and she fiercely resisted any attempts to ‘promote’ her to any other role – was that she treated all of her sources with exactly the same genuine enthusiasm, whether they were a chief executive, an editor or a junior reporter."

Jean was such a committed reporter that her idea of hell was to be stuck in a publishing meeting cut-off from her office telephone and her contacts. We were once sent on an awayday with magazine consultants complete with white boards and blue-sky thinking. Jean managed to escape halfway through, saying she had to ring Andrew Neil at the Sunday Times.

Jean was already working at the UK Press Gazette when I joined in 1984 in Temple Avenue, off Fleet Street, and we would often have a drink after work in the Old Bell with her husband Phil Morgan. Phil worked on the Sun news desk and was a lovely wry Welshman with a great sense of humour. Sadly, Phil died before many of the people who subsequently worked with Jean could meet him.

In my Press Gazette obit I said Jean was passionate about national and local newspapers and the importance of a free press. I also said Jean was trusted by tabloid journalists and editors at a time when they felt under fire from the “posh” papers and broadcasters and were often reluctant to speak publicly. I think this is because Jean and Phil knew many journalists from the popular end of Fleet Street and understood the pressures of putting out tabloid newspapers.

I also said Jean’s appearance could be deceptive and I had once overheard Daily Star editor Brian Hitchen telling members of his staff that Jean “looks like everyone’s favourite aunty but is very dangerous.” Someone else compared her to the fictional detective Miss Marple.

Her interviewing style was legendary. There was the full-frontal Morgan who got straight to the point, to the more subtle: “Congratulations on your new job, so why are you leaving, what’s going on there….” All taken down in Jean’s incredible speed writing which only she could understand.

Amanda Platell once told the Guardian’s Roy Greenslade: "Every time I was sacked, Jean knew before me. Every time I was promoted, Jean knew before I had time to call my mum."

Towards the end of Jean’s time at Press Gazette, we moved to Croydon under a new publishing company. Shortly after we arrived we got a memo saying the Christmas party was to be in a nightclub above the Blockbuster video shop. Worse, a new memo said the party theme was to be The Village People. Even worse. Another memo said we would be told which Village People character we would have to come as: The leather clad biker, Red Indian, construction worker or cowboy. Not long after there was a delighted whoop in the newsroom from Jean, who exclaimed: “I’ve been invited to Andrew Neil’s Christmas Party. Can’t make the do in Croydon.” She’d escaped again!

Croydon was a bit grim but we were saved when Philippa Kennedy, the ex-Daily Express news editor, was made our editor. Jean loved working with Philippa, who she regarded as a “proper” newspaper journalist. They got on like a house on fire, although occasionally I was called on to douse the flames.

Jean was appointed MBE for her work as a journalist, and we celebrated with Clare at the OXO Tower looking down on London. Jean finally decided to retire after 19 years working for Press Gazette and threw a big party attended by lots of the editors and journalists she had written about. A sign of how respected Jean was.

When Press Gazette was later bought by Piers Morgan and Matthew Freud we returned to Fleet Street. The week of our return I persuaded Jean to come out of retirement to help. Naturally, she got the splash with an exclusive story on how Hollywood star Sharon Stone was using a no-win, no-fee agreement to sue the Mail.

There was a symmetry. Jean and Press Gazette had come full circle, starting off in Temple Avenue, moved to Cockfosters, back to Clerkenwell and then out to Croydon and now back to Fleet Street. Jean had survived five owners and six editors and still producing brilliant stories.

Outside work Jean was the most marvellous friend to me and my family and many of the people she had worked with. We had lovely weekends at her cottage in East Sussex where she cooked up a storm with gourmet meals and we went walking in the nearby bluebell woods.

After Jean retired, we had gossipy lunches with old friends and colleagues at the El Parador restaurant near her flat in Camden. The El Parador owners liked Jean so much they often wouldn’t charge for the wine. Nothing better than walking into a restaurant to see Jean already there with a glass of wine ready for a good lunch.

As Jean’s health began to fail, she could no longer stay in her top floor mansion flat in London, with its killer stairs and no lift, and the decision was taken to move to Falmouth to live opposite Clare. What a good decision it was to make the move before the Covid lockdown. Clare did a wonderful job of not only caring for Jean but keeping in touch with all her old friends to tell us how she was doing. Clare’s been amazing.

Even when Jean was ill, she would always ask about members of my family and former colleagues. How are they? What are they doing? Still asking questions. Still interested in other people.

To start this tribute, I took my inspiration from Jean, so I thought I’d seek her help in how to end it. I wondered if she was here, what would she be doing? I imagined her sitting at the back, looking at her watch and saying: “Jon, do get on with it, and then we can go and have a glass of wine and a chat”

Oh, if only we all could….

A memorial service for Jean Morgan was held at St Bride's Church, Fleet St, on Thursday May 4.

Media Quotes of the Year 2022: War in Europe, death of the Queen, bye-bye Boris and Lettuce Liz

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 19:20:00 +0000

What an extraordinary year for news. War in Europe, death of the Queen, partygate, a financial crisis and three Prime Ministers. Lettuce Liz to Liz Gerard. InPublishing has published my Media Quotes of the Year 2022 here:

Jean Morgan: Press Gazette chief reporter

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 12:50:00 +0000

My friend and former colleague Jean Morgan has died aged 86. Here is a piece I've written about Jean for Press Gazette:

Jean was a news editor’s dream. She had fantastic contacts and was a brilliant story getter. Journalists always took her calls because they wanted to know what she knew.

Jean joined UK Press Gazette, as it was then in 1984, but her roots were very much in newspapers and the regional press. She regarded UKPG as a newspaper and not a magazine.

She was passionate about national and local newspapers and the importance of a free press. Jean was trusted by tabloid journalists and editors at a time when they felt under fire from the “posh” papers and broadcasters and were often reluctant to speak publicly and put their head above the parapet to defend themselves.

Jean’s appearance could be deceptive. I once overheard a Fleet Street editor telling members of his staff that Jean “looks like everyone’s favourite aunty but is very dangerous.” She was fearless and liked to bypass PR offices and go straight to the source. I remember Jean putting it bluntly to an evasive editor about the sudden departure of two of his staff: “I heard that you caught them rogering each other on your desk.”

Jean became an MBE for services to journalism in 2002. She said generously: "One never knows why we get these awards but I imagine it is something to do with our fight for the free press, which is what the Press Gazette is all about. This really is for everyone at the paper."

As Press Gazette’s various owners came and went and the office moved around London to Croydon and back to Fleet Street, Jean was a constant. She had a fierce intelligence and never ever backed down when she thought she was in the right. The force of her personality won over every new Press Gazette publisher and owner who quickly realised Jean was not be underestimated or patronised. When Jean finally retired from Press Gazette in 2003 she held a huge farewell bash attended by many of the editors and journalists she had spent the previous 19 years writing about.

One of them was Roy Greenslade, who had given Jean such an honest interview about the future of the tabloid press while he was editor of the Daily Mirror that Robert Maxwell sacked him.

Roy wrote in the Guardian: “I can certainly testify to Morgan's honesty and understanding. When I gave her what was considered an outspoken interview during my brief and stormy editorship of the Daily Mirror, she called back to ask whether I was really happy to be quoted on the record.

“For a reporter with an explosive scoop on her hands, she showed amazing concern and compassion. I agreed that she should publish and that article was later cited by Robert Maxwell as the reason for my departure from the Mirror.”

Both the Sun and Daily Mirror presented Jean with dummy front pages on her retirement, which she proudly displayed on the walls of her flat in London.

I once persuaded Jean to come out of retirement to help for a couple of weeks when we moved back to Fleet Street under the Piers Morgan/Matthew Freud ownership of Press Gazette. Naturally she got the splash with an exclusive story on how Hollywood star Sharon Stone was suing the Mail using a no-win, no-fee agreement.

Piers Morgan tried to make her return permanent claiming, in his understated way, that it would be the “biggest comeback since Lazarus”. He had obviously forgiven Jean for one of her Press Gazette front page stories which was headlined: Piers Morgan ‘I was a total prat and a complete tosser’ - based on a leaked private letter he had sent to the editor of the Sun.

Jean could not be persuaded to return but in retirement did sterling work as a trustee and member of the management committee of the Journalists’ Charity.

She was also a member of the Old Codgers group of journalists who used to meet for lunch but whose guest speakers, agonisingly for Jean, spoke strictly off the record so she could not report on what was said.

Jean started her journalism career on the Bridgend Advertiser as a trainee in 1954. Later she worked for the Bedfordshire Times, Leicestershire Evening Mail, South Wales Echo and then Thomson Regional Newspapers London Office, where among her assignments was interviewing pop stars and covering the Paris fashion shows.

At the South Wales Echo she met and married Phil Morgan who went on to be a news editor at the Sun. In the last few years Jean moved out of London to Falmouth in Cornwall to live near her daughter, Clare, a
journalist who works in university communications.

Jean was sharp, funny, good company and a great friend to me, my family and many of her old Press Gazette colleagues. We will all miss her very much.

Former Press Gazette editor Philippa Kennedy says: "One of my fondest memories was when Jean was working on a story involving the Daily Telegraph and I tried to help by ringing Murdoch Maclennan who was chief executive at the time. We had a chat and then he said: 'But Philippa, I’ve already given all this to Jean.’ Of course Jean would never reveal her sources, not even to me. That’s why people trusted her."

Naomi Marks, former Press Gazette features editor, adds: "I’ll miss her massively. Jean leaves behind her a swathe of younger generation of journalists who she unwittingly tutored and remain indebted to her in so many ways."

Jon Slattery adds: "Jean was such a good reporter she found out I was to be made redundant from a new job before I had even started. I was acting editor of Press Gazette but was leaving to join would-be PA rival UK News. Jean found out PA had won back the national press and UK News was not going ahead. I remember the fax beeping out the PA statement confirming her story just as we were putting the last issue to bed before Christmas. She got the splash (again) and luckily Press Gazette took me back."

Former Press Gazette broadcasting editor Steve Busfield writes: "RIP Jean. I learned so much from you during my year @pressgazette half a lifetime ago. She worked contacts relentlessly & had a great nose for a story - & did it with such charm. After her retirement our occasional lunches with @jonslattery were always fun."

Tim Walker remembers: "She was a very special lady and protective of her friends. When I got Mandrake on the Telegraph, she said she’d do a story in PG and I said quote me as saying ‘I’ll give Mandrake a new and distinctive quack.’ What do you mean, she said. I told her I thought Mandrake was a duck. Typically and charitably she let me rethink the quote!...I wonder why I thought Mandrake was a duck. I suppose I was thinking of Mallard."

Piers Morgan on Twitter: "Jean was a brilliant journalist, tenacious, mischievous, and a relentless scoop-breaker. RIP."

Former Press Gazette magazines editor Adam Smallman on Twitter on Jean: "A remarkable journalist, pin-sharp, a dear friend, hugely missed already."

Former Press Gazette editor Tony Loynes: "Jean was a fine and principled women who taught us all a lot."

Former Press Gazette editor Ian Reeves: “Jean’s great strength as a reporter – and she fiercely resisted any attempts to ‘promote’ her to any other role – was that she treated all of her sources with exactly the same genuine enthusiasm, whether they were a chief executive, an editor or a junior reporter."

Former Press Gazette chief sub editor Tarne Sinclair: "I am so glad that Jean was in my life and that I spoke to her just before she went into hospital...Adam is right, she was so sharp. I remember as a sub, if you ever queried her copy, you needed to make sure you had your facts right as Jean barely ever got her facts wrong... I learnt loads from her... and I am absolutely devastated she's gone. I thought she was invincible..."

Jean's funeral was held on 20 December at Treswithian Downs Crematorium, Camborne, Cornwall. Donations to Cancer Research UK.

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 08:18:00 +0000

I've written an article on the Good and the Bad of Press Freedom 2022 in the UK for InPublishing magazine. It includes libel lawyers shamed; legal costs; growing privacy law; Arron Banks vs Carole Cadwalladr; sources protected; the Government's policy of excluding media; Julian Assange and blocks on Freedom of Information. You can read it here.

Mike Lowe RIP: Some of his greatest Grey Cardigan hits and one last blast at the grey-suits

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 20:28:00 +0000

As my tribute to Mike Lowe, I thought I would publish a few of my favourite quotes from his Grey Cardigan column I've featured on my blog over the years. It's also a chance to give the bean-counters he loathed so much one last kicking.

Grey on local newspapers

"Look at the history of our newspapers and you will find that many of them were founded by local men and funded by local businesses - printers, campaigners, shopkeepers and solicitors. These men did not seek to make a vast fortune from their great adventure...Why can't the big groups sell off their failing titles to people who would actually love and nurture them?"

Grey on cuts in the regional press

"I met a regional daily newspaper manager the other day who seemed mystified at his title’s appalling ABC performance – down to the point at which weekly publication surely beckons.
“I don’t understand it Grey,” he said. “We’re coming out of the slump now, revenue should be picking up, but the sale is killing us. Advertisers are spending again, but they’re spending elsewhere. What’s going on?” I looked at him, thought once, thought twice, and then said nothing. If he can’t see that sacking half your journalists, dropping editions, closing your district offices, abandoning same-day printing, reducing the print run and slashing the marketing budget might possibly have some impact on your sales figures, then I’m not going to explain it to him."

Grey on centralised subbing

"Sadly, we have grown accustomed in recent years to seeing arrogant and uncaring newspaper managements shifting subbing jobs from individual newspapers to centralised production hubs. These faceless fuckwits take no account of the ruined careers and wrecked marriages left behind; their sole concern is the bottom line and the size of their next bonus."

Grey on bloggers

"Since the arrival of blogs everyone is a fucking journalist, and the sheer number of knobheads out there who are happy to churn out their boring, bland opinions just for the supposed glory of seeing their name in lights means that the notion of actually paying for well-written, thought-provoking words is now almost redundant. Why does this matter? Well it means that true creativity is stifled as writers and photographers give up the daily battle to put food on the table and the level of national debate continues to be dumbed down. Mark my words, it won’t be long before someone called @billyblogger24 is writing the leader column in The Times."

Grey reveals his departure from the Daily Beast:

"I’ve been replaced by a child in a suit. I leave with a framed front page, a valedictory drink at The Shivering Whippet, a small pay-off and my head held high. Now I’m in the dangerous waters of the unemployed or, as my previously departed colleagues called it, pursuing a new career as an editorial and PR consultant."

Grey on why the 'grey men in grey suits' forced out Northcliffe's outspoken editors

"They couldn't handle the boardroom battles, the cult of 'Editorial is King' and the notion that people would fight to the death for what was right for their newspapers, their readers and their staff. So off they had to go."

Grey on the bean-counters

"This is a creative business, dependant for success on imagination, inspiration and risk-taking. Accountancy, with the best will in the world, isn’t. The grey suited bean-counters aren’t a stereotypical myth; they’re the Dementors of the business world, soul-sucking fiends capable of draining away your happiness...Our current crop of bosses might be best buddies of the corporate shareholders (not to mention their own bank managers), but over the past 10 years the dead hand of fiscal prudence certainly hasn’t done our newspapers any favours. We’ve lost thousands of jobs, millions of pounds in revenue and the ‘service’ we provide to our remaining readers is a pitiful shadow of what it used to be and still should be.
Shame on you, the lot of you."

So who was the Grey Cardigan?

Jon Slattery writes: I worked with Mike at the Lincs Echo with a sub who inspired Grey Cardigan. This is a blog post I wrote about the "real Cardigan".

When I worked at Press Gazette the most common question I was asked was "who is the Grey Cardigan?" What people wanted to know was who wrote the column. I could never tell them that but I do know who the real Grey Cardigan is. I worked with the man who inspired the column, which gives the world view of a down table regional sub-editor, when I was a junior reporter on an evening paper in the Midlands.

He did indeed wear a grey cardigan along with a collar and tie and was the deputy chief sub. The reporters thought he was so miserable that when idling away a quiet afternoon by casting the paper's staff as they would to be portrayed in a Hollywood movie we decided he should be played by Peter Cushing. The actor was well known for his appearance in Hammer horror films where he portrayed Baron Frankenstein among other sinister characters.

Our subs, however, always insisted he was one of the wittiest men alive. All I could see was that his idea of fun was torturing the news editor. He got his opportunity to do this on a Saturday when he was acting chief sub.

When the news editor produced his standby page one splash, for example "Terror Dogs Stalk Estate" (ie. someone had phoned up earlier in the week about a couple of stray mutts), the original grey cardigan would spike it. Instead he would lead on some PA story that took his fancy, like a call for foreigners to be banned from using the NHS which was being made at a conference in Blackpool, miles outside our circulation area.

Oh, and his name was Bernard.

Press Gazette's tribute to Mike and an extract from a Grey Cardigan column can be read here

Media Quotes of the Week: From shaming the London libel lawyers who acted for oligarchs to judge backs journalist's right to protect sources

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 08:11:00 +0000

Publisher Arabella Pike in the Sunday Times [£] on how billionaire oligarchs used London's libel lawyers to try and stop investigations into their wealth: "The attacks were swiftly identified by various media campaigners as Slapps (strategic litigation against public participation). These are abusive lawsuits designed to manipulate existing legislation to intimidate and outspend journalists, writers, whistle-blowers, activists, NGOs, academics and publishers into silence and/or censorship.This litigation takes many forms, but its common purpose is to remove information from the public domain or prevent its publication altogether...

"You need a spine of titanium to withstand the pressures of litigious billionaires. Stress does awful things to your health, whatever its cause. I think we all suffered sleepless nights, exhaustion and feelings of being stuck in a process that would never end. The letters are crafted to undermine confidence in yourself and your work. The financial costs are huge, but so are the psychological."

David Davis MP in the House of Commons in January on the use of Slapp libel actions to stop journalists investigating rich oligarchs and businesses: “This is lawfare—lawfare against British freedom of speech, lawfare against the freedom of the press, and lawfare against justice for our citizens. Lawfare is the misuse of legal systems and principles by extraordinarily rich individuals and organisations to destroy their critics and opponents. In many cases, our reporters face reputational and financial ruin in defending themselves from these malevolent cases; even if they win, the expense and impact are huge. The chilling effect on a free press is extraordinary.”

The Times [£] in a leader: "The lawyers who act for Russian oligarchs in attempting to protect their wealth and reputations are not disinterestedly pursuing justice. They are enriching themselves and their firms by defending the powerful against scrutiny. The Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and Wales, has a moral obligation to investigate this scandal...

"Bob Seely, a Conservative MP, named in parliament four English lawyers from prominent firms who he said were working with “Putin’s henchmen”. And two British journalists, Catherine Belton and Tom Burgis, told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee last week that legal firms in London were working to intimidate investigators into dropping stories about Russian oligarchs, who can afford the vast expense of prolonged legal action. Burgis named the firms of Carter-Ruck, Schillings, Mishcon de Reya and Taylor Wessing as among the culprits. He even claimed he had been put under surveillance."

Carole Cadwalladr on Twitter: "Exciting new 14-page legal letter today. The most interesting aspect of it is the contention that as a responsible journalist you should right-to-reply someone *before* posting what an MP says about them. In parliament. Under privilege."

Kelvin MacKenzie on Twitter: "Money grabbing lawyers at @carterruck, @NLawGlobal and Schillings, who have made millions representing oligarchs anxious to stop journos finding out the source of their cash, should be forced by law to send every penny to feed Ukraine. They are s**ts of the highest order."

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter: "Ukrainian journalist released from Russian captivity. Oleh Baturin, a journalist from Russian-occupied Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast, went missing on March 12. 'I was beaten, humiliated, threatened. They said they would kill me. They wanted to break me,' said Baturin."

Associated Press video journalist Mstyslav Chernov, on being rescued by Ukraine soldiers from Mariupol after being told by an officer the Russians were hunting the AP journalists who were documenting the siege: " 'If they catch you, they will get you on camera and they will make you say that everything you filmed is a lie,' he said. 'All your efforts and everything you have done in Mariupol will be in vain'.”

Chris Mullin speaking outside the Old Bailey after Judge Lucraft ruled he did not have to reveal the sources of his investigation into the Birmingham pub bombings to West Midlands Police: “The right of a journalist to protect his or her sources is fundamental to a free press in a democracy. My actions in this case were overwhelmingly in the public interest. They led to the release of six innocent men after 17 years in prison, the winding up of the notorious West Midlands Serious Crimes Squad and the quashing of a further 30 or so wrongful convictions. This case also resulted in the setting up a Royal Commission which, among other reforms, led to the setting up of the Criminal Cases Review Commission and the quashing of another 500 or more wrongful convictions. My investigation is also the main reason why the identity of three of the four bombers is known."

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet in a statement: “This judgment is a hopeful beacon at a time when we rely more than ever on dependable news, despite journalists facing mounting legal challenges. Few reporters have been more courageous and dogged than Chris Mullin, nor have they been so spectacularly vindicated. This case threatened press freedom and amounted to another attempt to criminalise the legitimate actions of journalists. In refusing this production order, the judge has recognised the principle that the NUJ will always defend – that protecting sources underpins every journalist’s ability to report."

[£]=paywall

Media Quotes of the Year 2021: Riots, Royal rows, jail threats, abuse, Morgan, Murdoch and Neil

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 09:42:00 +0000

It was a year that began with reporters attacked while covering the Capitol riot in Washington and ended with journalists in Afghanistan fearing for their lives after the Taliban takeover. In the UK, there was a royal row over racism, the BBC was rocked by the Martin Bashir-Princess Di interview scandal and new TV channel GB News got off to a shaky start with the departure of Andrew Neil. My Media Quotes of the Year 2021 can be read here on InPublishing magazine.

Media Quotes of the Week: From ITV reporter asks Boris Johnson if everything is okay to Royal Family blasts BBC over Princes and the Press documentary

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 08:22:00 +0000

ITV reporter to the Prime Minister: “In your speech to the CBI, you lost your notes, you lost your place, you went off on a tangent about Peppa Pig. Frankly, is everything okay?"

Andrew Darling in a letter to The Times [£]: "Sir, Hugo Rifkind (Comment, Nov 16) is right to suggest that the reason the prime minister turned up at the Cenotaph looking neat and respectable is that he did not have time to scruff himself up beforehand. When I was news editor at Channel Four News in the 1990s one of my tasks was to escort guests from reception via make-up to the studio. I recall the evening when I collected Boris Johnson and took him to make-up, where his face was duly powdered and his hair neatly brushed. Virtually his first action on then setting off to be interviewed by Jon Snow was to run both hands vigorously through his hair until he once again, as Rifkind rightly describes it, resembled someone whose second job is 'being tied to a pole in a field with a turnip for a head'.”

Stewart Purvis on Twitter: "Nadine Dorries tells @CommonsDCMS Channel 4’s future should be ‘brought into question,particularly when it is in receipt of taxpayers’ money. It is our responsibility to evaluate whether taxpayers are receiving value for money’. Channel 4 receives no taxpayers’ money."

Paul Dacre, in a letter to The Times [£], reveals he will not be reapplying to be the new chair of Ofcom: "To anyone from the private sector, who, God forbid, has convictions, and is thinking of applying for a public appointment, I say the following: the civil service will control (and leak) everything; the process could take a year in which your life will be put on hold; and if you are possessed of an independent mind and are unassociated with the liberal-left, you will have more chance of winning the lottery than getting the job. Me? After my infelicitous dalliance with the Blob, I’m taking up an exciting new job in the private sector that, in a climate that is increasingly hostile to business, struggles to create the wealth to pay for all those senior civil servants working from home so they can spend more time exercising on their Peloton bikes and polishing their political correctness, safe in the knowledge that it is they, not elected politicians, who really run this country."

George Osborne on Twitter: "I admired Dacre’s forceful editorship of the Mail even if I was often on the wrong end of it. Can’t quite understand why he - like others of his ilk - wielded such power, got the government, the PM and the Brexit he wanted, and still thinks the system is stacked against him."

Press Gazette reports: "Former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre is returning to his advisory editor-in-chief position at Mail publisher DMG Media, just three weeks after leaving the same role."

Rory Cellan-Jones on Twitter: "Blimey. As the Chinese saying goes if you sit by the river long enough you’ll see the body of Geordie Greig go floating by. Makes Succession look like The Vicar of Dibley."

Andrew Marr on Twitter: "Personal announcement. After 21 years, I have decided to move on from the BBC.l leave behind many happy memories and wonderful colleagues. But from the New Year I am moving to Global to write and present political and cultural shows, and to write for newspapers...I think British politics and public life are going to go through an even more turbulent decade, and as I’ve said, I am keen to get my own voice back."

Bill Browder on Twitter: "The 2021 winner of the Magnitsky Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalist is Catherine Belton. She has exposed the crimes of the Putin regime in ways that nobody has ever done before. She’s now paid a very dear price in their retaliation with multiple abusive libel suits."

Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and Clarence House in a joint-statement on BBC2 documentary The Princes and the Press, as reported by the Mail: "A free, responsible and open Press is of vital importance to a healthy democracy. However, too often overblown and unfounded claims from unnamed sources are presented as facts and it is disappointing when anyone, including the BBC, gives them credibility."

David Aaronovitch on Twitter: "Just watched the first part of BBC2’s Royals and the press series. I am struck by how much time, money and intelligent people’s effort is spent on earnest discussion of what is, when all is said and done, fatuous, gossipy nonsense."

[£]=Paywall

Media Quotes of the Week: From terrorist attack coverage shows why local journalism matters to no return to the pre-Covid full-time newsroom

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 08:27:00 +0000

David Higgerson on Twitter: "When we talk about how "Journalism Matters" in the future, I hope we bang the drum for @LiveEchoNews and their coverage of the terrorist incident at the Women's Hospital yesterday. A beacon of accurate, reliable, information, making it clear what the team did know, and what... they were seeking answers too. Told readers how they were getting information, and ensured 'boots on the ground' late into the night. Well done - local journalism at its absolute best."

The Spectator's Steerpike column on Geordie Greig leaving the Daily Mail and Ted Verity being made editor of both the Mail and Mail on Sunday: "Verity was a key lieutenant to Paul Dacre during the latter's long editorship of the Mail. His ascent into the Daily Mail hotseat will be seen as a final victory for Dacre's allies in the ten-year war against Greig and his backers, which began when the Old Etonian was editing the Mail on Sunday. As one hack remarked to Mr S: 'Dacre always gets his man'."

Sean Ingle in the Guardian on its former football correspondent David Lacey, who has died aged 83: "The Azteca in Mexico City was his favourite stadium. It was here he saw the favourite game of his career, Italy’s 4-3 victory in the 1970 World Cup semi-final, and England crash out of the 1986 World Cup to Argentina. He began his report of the latter match with a classic Laceyism, telling his readers: 'The sorcery, not to mention the sauce of Diego Maradona, ended England’s World Cup hopes last night'.”

Reach Midlands political editor Jonathan Walker, quoted by HoldtheFrontPage, after six northern dailies united to run the same front page urging Boris Johnson to keep his promise on rail improvements: “Hard to understand how the Government got itself into this mess. Also, there’s no point briefing national papers about a massive boost for the North if you haven’t thought about how regional papers in the North will report your policy'."

Sun political editor Harry Cole on Twitter: "PM tells pool clip in response to sleaze questions: 'I just want to salute you and the media for keeping going on this.' Well it is rich pickings..."

Piers Morgan on Twitter: "Amusing to hear @OliverDowden tell Nick Robinson on Radio 4 that Britain is not corrupt because ministers are subjected to tough broadcast interviews. Mr Dowden boycotted
@GMB for 8 months along with Boris & the entire cabinet - to avoid tough broadcast interviews."

Marina Hyde in the Guardian: "What a mania for sympathetic placemen this government does have. Surely there should be some kind of body charged with overseeing “new broom” appointments such as Dacre’s? Call it the Office of Coming Under New Tutelage (Ofcunt). But listen – I love the idea of a fresh face, and Paul, 73, seems the ideal candidate. This is the movie Sunset Boulevard could have been, if only Billy Wilder had had the balls: one in which Norma Desmond is called back into the studio and cast in Roman Holiday instead of Audrey Hepburn. So much more jolly than Paul mouldering away in his mansion and shooting a writer (probably me, after this article)."

The Good Law Project in a statement: "The reason why Ofcom must remain independent of Government is the same reason the media must remain independent of Government: neither can do their job if they are in the Government’s pocket. We’re asking the Secretary of State to explain why the competition for Chair is being rerun and why Mr Dacre is being allowed to reapply. We want proper answers from the Government. If we don’t get them, we expect to take legal action."

Conor Matchett in The Scotsman: "Members of the public should be given the right to take over local newspapers at risk of closure and the Scottish Government should set up a new institute dedicated to supporting public interest journalism, a report has said. The recommendations, which also include the Scottish Government investing at least a quarter of its annual advertising budget in the press, come as part of a report published by the Public Interest Journalism Working Group...The report’s central recommendation calls for the creation of an independent Scottish Public Interest Journalism Institute which would administer grant funding and donations for public interest journalism projects and publications, while being self-funded after initial backing by the Scottish Government."

Steven Butler, the Committee to Protect Journalists' Asia program coordinator, in a statement: “The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of American journalist Danny Fenster from prison in Myanmar, where he has been unjustly held for nearly six months. Myanmar authorities should follow this gesture with the immediate release of the dozens of other journalists held in prison merely for doing their job of reporting the news.”

Reuters Institute report Changing Newsrooms 2021 states: "The return to the office is underway but with COVID-19 lingering in a number of countries, progress remains uneven and uncertain. Many will find newsrooms very different places to the ones they left. For some, the office has disappeared completely. This report, which is based on a survey of 132 senior industry leaders from 42 countries as well as a series of in-depth interviews, makes clear that ‘hybrid working’ will soon be the norm for the vast majority of journalists in many news organisations – with some people in the office and others working remotely – and that the industry is still struggling with attracting talent and addressing lack of diversity."

Media Quotes of the Week: Sleaze-busting scoops shame Government to Prince Harry says support honest journalists not 'pirates with press cards'

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 08:24:00 +0000

Dominic Ponsford on Press Gazette: "As Boris Johnson’s government, and Parliament itself, are engulfed in yet more sleaze scandals it is worth noting how many entries in this year’s British Journalism Awards involved exposing allegations of corruption and incompetence...No fewer than four of the eight nominations for the prestigious Scoop of the Year prize this year focused on allegations of UK government corruption, sleaze and incompetence. They were:

Financial Times – Cameron lobbied for Greensill access to Covid-19 loan schemes
Daily Mail – Raab was ‘too busy’ on holiday to help brave translators
The Sun – Hancock’s affair with aide
Daily Mail – PM’s secret fund for Carrie’s No10 décor

Alan Rusbridger on Twitter: "Great reporting by @thesundaytimes & @openDemocracy shows beyond doubt that the going rate for a peerage - ie to make laws for the rest of us - is £3m. Is Johnson really going to press on and handpick who regulates our media as well? Looks like it. Sleazy does it."

David Yelland on Twitter: "It was the Daily Mail wot did it for Paterson, not the PM...Geordie Greig take a bow, Daily Mail’s six pages on Owen Paterson corruption scandal is superb, two spreads, two columns, a leader; skewers Whittingdale too, a man who attacks BBC to please press backers."

Adam Boulton, who is leaving Sky News after 33 years, on the rise of opinion-led news in television, in The Times [£]: “I have no reason to think that’s the direction we [at Sky] want to go. However, it irritates me. To me the hard work, where we expend blood and tears — and there really is blood sometimes: Mick Deane [the cameraman and journalist] was killed [in Egypt in 2015] — is news-gathering in the field. It’s much easier to sit in the studio, let other people gather the news and then bloviate about it.”

BBC News reports: "A report by the Survivors Against Terror group suggested new rules for journalists reporting attacks. They include an agreement not to contact the bereaved and seriously injured directly for at least the first 48 hours after an incident. It is also suggested that the use of pictures of those killed or injured without permission stops and journalists gathering outside victims' homes is prohibited."

Matthew Parris in The Times [£]: "In politics and journalism, friendship is more corrupting than money."

Jamie Nimmo in the Sunday Times [£]: "A decision to privatise Channel 4 is facing delays after the new culture secretary Nadine Dorries was overwhelmed by opposition to a sale of The Great British Bake Off broadcaster. Dorries was due to respond this month to submissions made in relation to plans to offload Channel 4, which is state-owned but self-funded through advertising. However, after a flood of opposition, her response is now not expected until next month or January, delaying any sale. The government is understood to have received 60,000 submissions."

Elaine McCarthyin a letter to the Observer: "As a long-term resident of Harlow, I think a big barrier to cohesion in this sprawling town (“Revealed: the towns at risk from far-right extremism”, News) is the absence of a proper local newspaper, the sort of newspaper that includes obituaries, club news and civil announcements. The online offering of local news lacks the opportunity of lucky finds. So if a resident in one part of the town has no knowledge of the happenings in another, apathy, it seems, is all too easy."

Prince Harry in a virtual discussion on “The Internet Lie Machine” organised by Wired magazine: “I really feel we have to invest in and support professional, honest journalists who respect and uphold the values of journalism, not the pirates with press cards who have hijacked the most powerful industry in the world. I would love to see a movement to expose the unethical, the immoral and dishonest amongst them.”

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Media Quotes of the Week: From Rusbridger, Barber and MacKenzie on Paul Dacre chairing Ofcom to saving court reporting in the digital age

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 08:26:00 +0000

Alan Rusbridger on Twitter: "The Government seems determined to impose the 'unappointable' Paul Dacre on Ofcom. That means, I'm afraid, that Ofcom will no longer be seen as independent from Government. Big price to pay."

Lionel Barber on Twitter: "If Tories don’t like the conclusion of one independent committee hearing, then they move the goalposts. Applies as much to Dacre on Ofcom job as Paterson on parliamentary standards and lobbying. Slow strangulation of representative government."

Kevin MacKenzie in his a spokesman said column: "In a saga that has lasted longer than finding a decent manager for Spurs I am pleased to report that Boris is still determined to make Paul Dacre, the talented ex-Editor of the Daily Mail, chairman of the media regulator Ofcom...A new panel that will give Dacre the nod is currently being put together. Each will be asked before they join if they have a problem with Dacre. If any answer yes they won’t be on the panel. That’s how it works. The establishment hate journalists. They simply aren’t clubbable. That’s why I like them and why I am one of them."

According to the Guardian, Paul Dacre has departed his role as chair of the Daily Mail’s parent company. Although Dacre stood down as editor of the Daily Mail in 2018, he remained as chair and editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers.

Findings from the government's Call for Evidence on Journalist Safety include:

Just over 4 in 5 journalists experienced threats, abuse or violence as a result of their work. These incidents included abuse, intimidation, threats of violence, violence, death threats, bullying, sexism, racism and homophobia.
More than a third of women respondents indicated that they did not feel safe operating as a journalist in the UK.
The majority of respondents did not report all incidents to platforms, police and employers, due in part to poor confidence they would be taken seriously.
The Call for Evidence asked journalists to describe in more detail the impacts of incidents to identify the most common themes. The most prevalent identified impacts on everyday behaviour included avoiding certain places or crowds, being defensive and wary in public, and avoiding engaging with the public or readers in both physical spaces and on social media.

Andy Burnham on culture secretary Nadine Dorries in the Observer: "Nadine gets herself noticed, but if it becomes a thing that the culture secretary fights culture wars, then I think the job is in serious trouble. When I heard her [conference] comments, I thought, here we go, a BBC-bashing culture secretary.”

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries in the Manchester Evening News marking Journalism Matters Week: "We've introduced a trailblazing Online Safety Bill that will make us one of the first countries in the world to force tech companies to clean up their sites. But, crucially for journalists, that Bill will also prevent social media firms from arbitrarily taking down content from respected news organisations. And, even better, it includes extremely important protection and exemptions for journalists, so that we can protect their free speech while forcing social media platforms to police their sites properly."

News Media Association chairman Henry Faure Walker in InPublishing marking Journalism Matters Week: "Sadly, the American owned tech giants continue to leech revenues away from British journalism, while exploiting our content to sell advertising on their own platforms. We welcome Government moves to tackle this problem, seeking to deliver a level playing field and fair practices, but time is running out, particularly for some local publishers, and we need the Government to go further, faster. And the BBC needs to be prevented from rolling its tanks, funded by the licence fee, onto the lawn of the hard pressed independent local news sector."

BBC director general Tim Davie on the Corporation's new 10-point impartiality plan :"The BBC's editorial values of impartiality, accuracy and trust are the foundation of our relationship with audiences in the UK and around the world. Our audiences deserve and expect programmes and content which earn their trust every day and we must meet the highest standards and hold ourselves accountable in everything we do. The changes we have announced not only ensure we learn the lessons from the past but also protect these essential values for the future."

John Witherow, editor of The Times, speaking at the Web Summit and reported in his own paper [£]: “Today we are told it’s the tech giants who are killing us. Readers want everything for free, we must do click-bait, it’s a race to the bottom. Except that’s not true. Good journalism does not need saving. It’s thriving. This is a golden age for serious journalism. It’s expanding into audio and visual and reaching new audiences.When young people ask me if they should go into journalism nowadays, I say, by all means, now is a great time.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists CPJ’s Global Impunity Index finds: "In more than 80 percent of cases, the killers of journalists are still getting away with murder. Somalia continues to rank as the world’s worst offender, followed by Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, and Afghanistan. Yet while Afghanistan’s spot on the Index is unchanged from 2020, the Taliban’s August takeover raises fears that impunity for journalist murders there may become even more entrenched."

EU Commission statement on International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists: "We will stand by and protect journalists, no matter where they are. We will continue supporting a free and diverse media environment, supporting collaborative and cross-border journalism, and tackling violations of media freedom. There is no democracy without media freedom and pluralism. An attack on media is an attack on democracy.”

From openDemocracy’s new report on the UK Government and Freedom of Information, Access Denied’: "Last year was the worst on record for government secrecy, new research by openDemocracy has revealed. Just 41% of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests sent to government departments and agencies were granted in full in 2020, down from 43% the previous year. This is the lowest figure since records began in 2005."

John Battle in The Times [£] on how to improve court reporting in the digital age: "A step forward would be a reporters’ charter across civil and criminal courts to ensure basic 'rights': a designated place to sit in the court; wi-fi; access to listing details; documents used in evidence; crucial witness statements and the judgment; a point of contact for media inquiries and a right to make representations to the court. Journalists also need a database to access reporting restrictions and relevant documents...The pace of change is not keeping up with the digital age. It is in the interests of the courts, the legal system and the media to make this happen, so let’s get on with it before it’s too late."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From if you want Royal scoops pay Palace footmen to BBC urged to appoint a pro-Brexit political editor to replace Kuenssberg

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 07:27:00 +0000

Kelvin MacKenzie on Twitter: "John Inman sound alike Nicholas Witchell is moaning on BBC that The Queen's people tipped off @theSundaily rather than him when she overnighted in hospital. Why would she tell a pinch-faced tosser like him anything. The answer is for the BBC to bung footmen like Murdoch does."

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries expressing her fury at the BBC’s Nick Robinson after he told the prime minister to “stop talking” during a tense interview, according to The Sunday Times [£]: “Nick Robinson has cost the BBC a lot of money.”

Nick Cohen in the Observer: "Opposition to censorship should not be based on sympathy for the censored but fear of the censors. To loud applause, the UK government says it wants to implement the most far-reaching web regulation of any western democracy. Too few are noticing that the Conservatives’ answer to the question of how to curb online hate is to give its politicians excessive powers and make Paul Dacre the country’s internet censor-in-chief."

Matt Hancock in a letter to the Independent Press Standards Organisation, as reported by Guido Fawkes: "I am writing to ask your help to protect my children, following widespread media coverage of my personal life in the last few months. Now, more than three months after my resignation as Secretary of State, there is no longer any public interest whatsoever in any publication about my private life, or the private life of my partner Gina Coladangelo or either of our families. While a perfectly reasonable case could have been made while I was in Government, there is clearly now no public interest case for invasion of our privacy."

The Times [£] reports: "Paris Match announced a change of editor amid a row over compromising photographs of Éric Zemmour, the far-right pundit who is expected to run for the French presidency.
Hervé Gattegno lost his job as editor a month after putting on the magazine’s front cover a photograph of Zemmour, 63, embracing Sarah Knafo, his 28-year-old assistant, on the French Riviera. The scoop angered Zemmour, who announced that he was taking legal action for breach of privacy."

Jake Kanter in The Times [£] reporting the departure of Emily Sheffield as editor of the London Evening Standard: "There have been persistent rumours that [Evgeny] Lebedev is seeking to close the newspaper down and turn it into an online-only publication, as he did with The Independent in 2016...'There is a lot of sentimentality attached to the Standard, but keeping the brand alive in a digital capacity seems a sensible strategy,' a well-placed source said. 'Evgeny has got what he wanted from being a press baron, not least his peerage'.”

Kent Chief Constable Alan Pughsley in a letter to photographer Andy Aitchison, who was arrested after taking pictures of a protest outside Napier Barracks, as reported by the NUJ: "Further to the damages received by Mr Aitchison in compensation, I apologise unreservedly to him for his unlawful arrest, false imprisonment and breach of his human rights. I expressly acknowledge there was no culpability on the part of Mr Aitchison who was performing an important function publicising the protest in the public interest. I recognise the fundamental importance of free speech and the independent of journalists; I accept they should not be at risk of arrest and of having their equipment seized when acting lawfully in reporting matters of public interest.”

Mail photographer Gary Trotter, who has died aged 65 , on his ideal assignment: "A small war, a beach and a bar that serves Jack Daniels."

Iliffe editorial director Ian Carter, quoted on HoldtheFrontPage, about the departure of Cornwall Live chief reporter Lee Trewhela who said abuse on social media was one of the reasons he was leaving: “This is happening at one end of the spectrum, while at the other we are seeing far fewer people enter the industry. I’ve no doubt that is, in part, due to a reluctance to open themselves up to abuse from morons. The anti-press sentiment is exacerbated by lazy politicians shouting ‘fake news’ every time something they don’t like is published, police officers warning victims of crime not to speak to local journalists etc etc.”

Julian Knight MP, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, on who should succeed Laura Kuenssberg as BBC political editor, as reported by the Telegraph: "This would be an opportunity for the BBC, maybe, to look at journalists who had a much more pro-Brexit [approach]. In front of our committee [BBC director general], Tim Davie could not name any senior person he had employed during his watch who supported Brexit. Maybe this is a chance to correct that."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From Murdoch's remade Britain in his own malevolent image to journalists vilified daily just for doing their jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 07:24:00 +0000

Lord Puttnam in a speech announcing his retirement from the House of Lords: "Mirroring the anxieties of many of those angry Brexiteers in 2016, I feel I’ve had my country of birth, and the values I believed it to represent, stolen from me. It’s worse than that, I find myself embarrassed by what, on an almost daily basis I see it becoming – my old enemy Rupert Murdoch’s dream made real. He never liked Britain, and he’s kind of won, he’s helped remake it in his own malevolent image."

Didi Tang in The Times [£]: "China will require more than 200,000 accredited journalists to take at least 90 hours of continued education each year to ensure they are “politically firm”, “professionally excellent” and toe the party line. The move, announced in a draft document from the National Press and Publication Administration and the country’s human resources ministry, is the latest attempt to tighten control over journalists."

Robert Peston talking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival on how he became obsessed with getting scoops when he was covering New Labour in the 1990s, as reported by the Sunday Times [£]: “There were a couple of occasions around then when people told me things as friends that I put in the newspaper that I should never have done, and it actually almost cost me quite a lot personally. And I did eventually sort of grow up and wake up a bit. But news is, because of the excitement and the adrenaline, intrinsically addictive and I have a very strongly addictive personality — and a bit corrupting. Sometimes I was just too obsessed with getting the story. And that was bad.”

Government advisory notice to press: "Following the arrest of a man in Essex on Friday 15 October, the Attorney General reminds editors, publishers and social media users that for the purpose of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 (the Act), proceedings are active and the strict liability rule under the Act therefore applies. In particular, the Attorney General wishes to draw attention to the risks in publishing material, including on-line, that asserts or assumes, expressly or implicitly, the guilt of any of those arrested, or that otherwise interferes with the administration of justice in this case, for example allegations of wrongdoing of any individual arrested in relation to this matter.The Attorney General’s Office will be monitoring the coverage of these proceedings."

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, on The Times investigation into police misconduct hearings:“The findings by The Times which show the level of secrecy surrounding police misconduct hearings is deeply alarming, especially in the light of the Sarah Everard case. The fact that the newspaper has had to use FOI requests to gain clarity on this issue tells its own story. The results of their investigations show that one in four hearings were held in private, that journalists were routinely blocked when they argued for open proceedings, and that almost half of 40 misconduct outcome notices relating to officers and staff in England and Wales in the past month were anonymised."

David Sassoli, the president of the European parliament, after the inaugural Daphne Caruana Galizia prize was awarded to the journalists from the Pegasus Project coordinated by the Forbidden Stories Consortium: “Daphne Caruana Galizia’s death has brought about a resurgence of investigative journalism by colleagues committed to continuing her work. Recent examples, such as the Pandora papers, have demonstrated the unique power of journalism that is daring and adamant, particularly when carried out in the context of an international consortium. By creating transparency, investigative journalism allows voters to make informed decisions. Protecting and supporting journalists is in the vital interest of democratic societies.”

Committee to Protect Journalists reports: "Leading press freedom organizations Free Press Unlimited, Reporters Without Bordersand the Committee to Protect Journalists launch The People’s Tribunal to indict the governments of Sri Lanka, Mexico and Syria for failing to deliver justice for the murders of Lasantha Wickremathunga, Miguel Ángel López Velasco, and Nabil Al-Sharbaji. The Tribunal, a form of grassroots justice, relies on investigations and high-quality legal analysis involving specific cases in three countries. The opening hearing will be held on 2 November in The Hague."

Marianna Spring on BBC News: "I'm the BBC's first specialist disinformation reporter - and I receive abusive messages on social media daily. Most are too offensive to share unedited. The trigger? My coverage of the impact of online conspiracies and fake news. I expect to be challenged and criticised - but misogynistic hate directed at me has become a very regular occurrence. Messages are laden with slurs based on gender, and references to rape, beheading and sexual acts."

Chief reporter Lee Trewhela on leaving CornwallLive after 30 years covering Cornwall: "I have to say that one of the reasons I'm going is down to the amount of abuse and negativity journalists face on social media these days. Regional reporters live in the communities we write about, share the same concerns as the people we write about, and despite many people's opinion of CornwallLive the reporting team cares deeply and thinks long and hard about what is published. And, yes, that does mean we have to challenge sometimes."

Reach's first online safety editor Dr. Rebecca Whittington, quoted by Press Gazette: “Journalists are vilified online on a daily basis simply for doing their jobs, with types of abuse ranging from personal attacks to hate crimes. Not only does this cause harm to the victims of abuse, but it also causes harm to the audience witnessing it. It is time these issues were addressed and by leading the way and creating the position of online safety editor, Reach is taking an important step in doing just that. In my role I aim to support staff facing online abuse and harassment and I also want to address the issue externally, by working with platforms and audiences to prevent and protect.”

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Press Freedom in the UK: Article for InPublishing

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 08:15:00 +0000

From lofty promises to media boycotts, attacks on the BBC and C4, an unlawful police raid, libel laws and threats to jail journalists and whistleblowers. My article on Press Freedom in the UK is up on InPublishing.

Media Quotes of the Week: From Nobel Peace Prize award is a tribute to journalism to concern over journalists SLAPPED with legal proceedings

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 07:26:00 +0000

The Nobel Peace Prize: “The Norweigian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021 to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. Ms Ressa and Mr Muratov are receiving the Peace Prize for their courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia. At the same time, they are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.”
Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire in a statement on Ressa and Muratov: "This prize is an extraordinary tribute to journalism and a mobilisation appeal, because this decade will be absolutely decisive for journalism. It is a powerful message at a time when democracies are being undermined by the spread of fake news and hate speech.”

International Federation of Journalists general secretary Anthony Bellanger in a statement: “We welcome the Nobel Committee's recognition of the importance of freedom of the press and the role of journalism in the service of democracy and peace, especially at the moment when journalists' rights are under unprecedented threats globally".

Committee to Protect Journalists' executive director Joel Simon in a statement: "These are journalists under personal threat, who continuously defy censorship and repression to report the news, and have led the way for others to do the same. Their struggle is our struggle.”

The Times [£] in a leader: "The award of the Nobel peace prize to two journalists who have exposed crimes of the powerful is among the best decisions in the history of this often contentious accolade. Maria Ressa, co-founder of a Philippine news site, and Dmitry Muratov, a Russian investigative journalist, have shown raw courage in exposing repression perpetrated by the rulers of their respective nations...The Nobel award may not sway the regimes whose depravities are exposed by courageous journalists, but the world is a better place for such heroism."

John Simpson on Twitter: "Two journalists win the Nobel Peace Prize for their courage in reporting the truth about the Philippines and Russia, at the moment when Newcastle United is bought by someone accused of murdering a journalist who had the courage to report the truth about Saudi Arabia."

BBC News reports: "Hours after independent editor Dmitry Muratov was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Russian authorities have designated several publications and journalists as foreign agents. Investigative group Bellingcat and BBC Russian journalist Andrei Zakharov are among those listed."

Kelvin MacKenzie on Twitter: "Just heard that Rupert Murdoch is paying an astonishing £50million over 3 years to @piersmorgan for his nightly show which will be broadcast in the UK, US and Australia. Rupert at 90 negotiated the deal personally. Piers is now the highest paid TV guy anywhere outside the US. Murdoch's London arm couldn't afford the deal so Fox is bearing most of the cost. It was so expensive because Murdoch wanted Piers to move his columns and 7million followers from Mailonline and the Mail on Sunday to The Sun and New York Post. ITV's management do look idiots."

The Guardian reports: "Tommy Robinson has been given a five-year stalking protection order after he shouted abuse outside the home of a journalist and threatened to repeatedly return to her address. The founder of the English Defence League, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, went to the property of the Independent’s home affairs correspondent Lizzie Dearden and her boyfriend, Samuel Partridge, in January of this year. Westminster magistrates court heard he stood outside Dearden’s house and shouted unsubstantiated allegations about Partridge. The deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram said Robinson’s behaviour 'crossed the line between mere harassment and stalking'.”

News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith in The Times [£]: "In its BBC Across the UK plans, the Beeb reveals ambitions to use its privileged position to encroach further into local news in an unprecedented assault on the space already well-served by commercial news media...By increasing its local news footprint, the BBC would create a democratic deficit by putting local publishers out of business. That does nothing to enhance the voice of the overlooked, hold the powerful to account, or sustain media plurality and access to high-quality journalism."

Paul Wiltshire on Twitter: "So utterly bored of this tired, demeaning, divisive line. The regional media faces many challenges. The BBC recruiting more journalists is not one of them."

Gill Phillips, GNM director of editorial legal services, in the Guardian: "Freedom of speech is a fundamental part of any democracy, but exercising and defending it can be a difficult and expensive thing.The rich, the famous and the powerful don’t like criticism and don’t like having their dirty laundry aired in public. They can be well-resourced, and will spend heavily on expensive lawyers. They don’t always tell the truth, or fight fair."

The RAID website reports: "Fifteen organisations express their serious concern at the legal proceedings that have been filed in a UK court against journalist and author Tom Burgis, his publisher HarperCollins, and his employer the Financial Times. Two lawsuits have been filed by Kazakh multinational mining company, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), for what it claims are a series of 'untrue' and 'highly damaging' allegations made by the defendants about the company...'We are extremely concerned that the lawsuits against Tom Burgis, HarperCollins, and the FT are Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPPs). SLAPPs are a form of legal harassment used by those with deep pockets to silence journalists and other public watchdogs by exploiting intimidatingly long and expensive legal procedures,' the organisations said."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From Culture Secretary says BBC has forgotten about the working class to best of British journalism is often in local press

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 07:28:00 +0000

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries interviewed in the Sun: "When I talk about access, I mean the make-up of who works at the BBC. They often tell us what percentage of their employees are gay, black or trans. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about what the BBC is doing to represent the vast number of low socio-economic, non-diverse areas in the UK. Places like Breck Road, like Leicester and Bradford. Towns and cities with big council estates and strong working-class communities. It’s almost like they have forgotten about them. They didn’t think they really mattered because nobody was raising the issue. It’s about group-think. The BBC thinks in one way about lots of issues. But that groupthink is out of step with what the majority of other people in the UK think.”

Nick Robinson interviewing Boris Johnson on the Today programme: "Prime Minister, stop talking. We are going to have questions and answers, not where you merely talk, if you wouldn’t mind."

John Simpson on Twitter: "Margaret Thatcher was the first British political leader to question publicly whether the BBC should have a future. ‘It’s so left-wing,’ she told a group of us. ‘But you say you never watch tv; how do you know?’ I asked. ‘Rupert Murdoch keeps me informed about it,’ she replied."

Michelle Stanistreet NUJ general secretary in a statement on the £75k a year pay increase for BBC director general Tim Davie: “NUJ members gave their all over the past 18 months to provide the best possible service to the public during the pandemic. Their reward was a pay freeze last year, and a below-inflation deal this year. This lavish bung for the director general, accompanied by briefings that try to justify his pay in relation to the so-called ‘market’, is tone deaf and represents an insult to staff whose remuneration is repeatedly approached through the prism of public sector constraints."

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on its Pandora Papers investigation: "The ICIJ obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files and led a team of more than 600 journalists from 150 news outlets that spent two years sifting through them, tracking down hard-to-find sources and digging into court records and other public documents from dozens of countries. The leaked records come from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients often seeking to keep their financial activities in the shadows. The records include information about the dealings of nearly three times as many current and former country leaders as any previous leak of documents from offshore havens."

Ed Cumming in the Observer on doing work experience at the NME: "One evening I was offered 24 cans of Carling to stay late and transcribe an interview with Keith Richards. The next morning I was asked if there were any 'news lines'. Not really, I said. Just the usual Keith Richards stuff. A few days later I saw some of the words I’d typed up on the front page of the Sun under the headline: KEITH: I SNORTED MY DAD."

Joe Thomas in the Liverpool Echo on Kier Starmer writing for the Sun: "When Mr Starmer stood on a stage in this great city and vowed not to speak with the S*n during his leadership campaign he was content to receive the support that followed. Now that he is leader he may argue he is involved in a different campaign that requires a different approach. Yet if this is a calculated political gamble it is one that, to many on Merseyside, renders his past words hollow and creates the sense that it is the support of this Labour stronghold that he is willing to risk in his pursuit of power."

Afghan journalists in an appeal to the international community via Reporters Without Borders: "In the short term, we need strong support for evacuations of journalists in danger, by assigning them all necessary diplomatic, consular and financial resources. Journalists who have fled the country must be given facilities so that they continue to work as journalists. At this historic and also chaotic time, the disappearance of Afghan journalism would be disastrous. Ensuring the safety of media professionals is crucial in order to preserve the fundamental right of all Afghan citizens to receive accurate news and information, a prerequisite for any hope of one day seeing Afghanistan on the road to a lasting peace. Help us to make Afghan journalism survive."

Bill Browder interviewed by John Sweeney for Index on Censorship on the libel action against ex-Financial Times journalist Catherine Belton's book Putin's People: “I’ve known Catherine for many years. She’s one of the most rigorous reporters I’ve ever come across. I’ve read her book. And my own view is that the libel action against her is creating a climate of fear among journalists...This is, in my opinion, not just about terrorising Catherine Belton, this is an act of terror that terrorises you and every other journalist and every other publishing company. And so I fear this will have a huge damping effect on vigorous reporting about what’s going on in Russia, without question. And I think it goes well beyond Catherine Belton."

Alastair Campbell on Twitter: "It’s such a shame that most people in the country do not see the best of British journalism. So often it is local and regional. Most of the national front pages these days are now either propaganda or trivia."

Media Quotes of the Week: From don't blame the media for petrol crisis to Trump sues NY Times and reporters over 'insidious plot' to obtain tax records

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 07:22:00 +0000

Iliffe Media editorial director Ian Carter in an opinion article on Kent Online: "For all those complaining about media ‘scaremongering’, ask yourself one simple question - would you really prefer to live in a society where inconvenient truths are hidden from you? Where the media deliberately censors information because it doesn’t feel the public can be trusted with it? Maybe you would; I wouldn’t. Where would that end? Don’t report incidents of serious crime in case it deters people from leaving the house? It’s also obvious that the moment the first garage ran low on fuel it would spread across social media networks at breakneck pace - and then it wouldn’t be long before the mainstream media were getting it in the neck for not warning people...

"Bashing the MSM is something everyone in the industry has got used to and by and large we take it on the chin.In this instance, I think remaining silent would be a disservice to readers - there are people with questions to answer about why we are where we are, and by choosing to scapegoat the media, the spotlight is in the wrong place. The fuel crisis is a complex, concerning scenario involving Covid, Brexit, the logistics of transporting hazardous materials and salary levels. Traducing it to simply ‘media scaremongering’ is plain wrong."

YouGov on Twitter: "Britons hold the media most responsible for petrol stations running out of fuel."

The media - 47% say are most to blame
The government - 23%
The public - 22%

Henry Winter in The Times [£]: "Here we go again, footballers should be seen but not heard. So says the Spectator following Gary Neville’s observations about the paucity of political leadership, whether red or blue. Open your eyes. Footballers like Neville, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling feel and suffer more of life’s vicissitudes in this great country than columnists playing at life rather than experiencing it."

Andrew Neil interviewed in the Daily Mail on his departure from GB News: "The reason I am quite emotional is that I’m angry. I thought after ten years at the Economist, 11 years at The Sunday Times, the launch of Sky Television and Sky News, ten years as publisher of The Scotsman and, for 25 years working to become the BBC’s premier interviewer, GB News would be the final big career move and then I’d pack it all in. I am angry. I’m also quite unforgiving of this chief executive and the board. They are the ones who put me through this – the disrespect. Why pay me all that money? Why make me chairman? Why make me lead presenter and then just not listen?

"So I’m angry that what should have been my last big media gig – which, if we’d made it work, could have been great – turned out to be the worst eight months of my career, the worst by far, from early January to last weekend when I finally got free of everything. Don’t forget, I’ve been on the IRA hit list twice. I’ve had special protection – anti-terrorist forces outside my house. I’ve been on the jihadists’ hit list. This feels worse."

Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the NUJ, in a statement on the 20th anniversary of the murder of Sunday World journalist Martin O'Hagan: “The failure of the authorities to properly investigate the brutal murder of Martin O’Hagan is a stain on the history of policing in Northern Ireland. The passage of time does not obliterate the need for an independent investigation drawn from outside the UK to investigate the murder and the subsequent police failings...Martin would be horrified by the recent threats to journalists across Northern Ireland. The use of social media to undermine journalists is a disturbing trend but Martin would be unsurprised by the cowardice of keyboard warriors, having challenged so many who operated in the shadows during his career."

International Federation of Journalists general secretary, Anthony Bellanger, in a statement after a report published by Yahoo News that the CIA allegedly planned to kidnap and assassinate Julian Assange as they feared he was planning to escape to Russia from the Ecuadorian embassy in London: “If these accusations are true, it would cast a long shadow over all independent journalism and they would once again prove that extraditing Assange to the United States would put his life at serious risk. We are calling for a full investigation and for the British authorities to release him immediately."

New York Times reports: "Former President Donald J. Trump filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Mary L. Trump, The New York Times and three of its reporters of conspiring in an 'insidious plot' to improperly obtain his confidential tax records and exploit their use in news articles and a book. The lawsuit claims that the Times reporters, as part of an effort to obtain the tax records, relentlessly sought out Ms. Trump, the former president’s niece, and persuaded her 'to smuggle the records out of her attorney’s office' and turn them over to The Times."

New York Times investigative reporter Susanne Craig responds on Twitter: "I knocked on Mary Trump’s door. She opened it. I think they call that journalism."

In 2019, three Times reporters — David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner — were awarded a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting for articles about Trump’s taxes. In announcing the award, the Pulitzer judges called the work “an exhaustive 18-month investigation” that “revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges.”

[£]=paywall

Media Quotes of the Week: From pandemic pressures pushing journalists to quit to Culture Secretary's eye-watering threat to reporter

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 07:22:00 +0000

Sara Guaglione on Digiday: "The effects of the pandemic on journalists are ongoing. People are continuing to quit their jobs, leave the industry or shift roles, citing burnout from the pressures of working under the shadow of a pandemic while already in a stressful career path. The pandemic seems to be pushing journalists who were already on the verge of leaving to the brink, and those that have left are not looking back."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts journalism jobs in US will decline by 4.8% by 2030, after already shrinking from nearly 66,000 workers in 2000 to 52,000 in 2019.

Andrew Neil, asked on BBC's Question Time about his departure from GB News: "I had made it clear, it wouldn't be a British Fox News, and I think you could do something different without going anywhere near Fox. Fox deals in untruths, it deals with conspiracy theories, and it deals in fake news and that's not my kind of journalism...More and more differences emerged between myself and the other senior managers and the board of GB News. Rather than these differences narrowing, they got wider and wider and I felt it was best that if that’s the route they wanted to take then that’s up to them, it’s their money."

Andrew Neil on Twitter: "After weeks of talks with @GBNEWS, resulting in exit settlement, the channel then broke it by briefing Mail on Sunday with load of smears/lies then unilaterally cancelling exit deal. Leaving me free to do, say whatever I want + never again be on GBNews. Couldn’t be happier."

Alan Rusbridger on Twitter: "The BBC should, IMHO, hire back @afneil asap. Whatever his politics, he is a true professional and understands the BBC rules perfectly well. The same, I suspect, is true of @jessbrammar."

Piers Morgan on Twitter on joining News UK's new national television station talkTV and writing a column for the Sun: "I’ve gone home. Great to be rejoining Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation after 28 years. The place I started my media career, with the boss who gave me my first big break. We’re going to have a lot of fun…."

Rupert Murdoch on Piers Morgan: “Piers is the broadcaster every channel wants but is too afraid to hire. Piers is a brilliant presenter, a talented journalist and says what people are thinking and feeling.”

Mic Wright on Byline Times: "The moment that Andrew Neil – a former sinister apprentice to the dark lord of News Corp during his time at The Sunday Times and Sky – announced his departure from GB News on Monday, Murdoch’s plan for a new right-wing news channel, which had been ‘scaled back’ in April, twitched to life. Murdoch has seen an opportunity to take the anti-woke, far-right slot that GB News has failed to dominate through lack of investment, paucity of talent, and technical ineptitude."

Will Hutton in the Observer: "Right-of-centre British newspapers have done an unparalleled job in attempting to move public opinion to the right, but as their circulation declines so their influence wanes. Without a politician of the campaigning zest of Boris Johnson, Tories concede, their chance of winning elections will fade. The imperative is to use the current conjuncture to follow the US and build a broadcast media as effective as the fading print media in cheerleading the Conservative cause. Public service broadcasting and, above all, broadcast regulators’ attachment to impartiality are in their crosshairs."

Journalist and trade unionist in Afghanistan interviewed by the International Federation of Journalists: "As a journalist it is hard to work under the Taliban because they don't respect journalists' rights, they see every journalist as an enemy or as working against them. They have violated the existing legislation, they have not set out any clear policy, they don't allow access to information and prevent news coverage each time they don't wish an issue to be reported on. I have worked mostly with international media, mainly from the UK and US and they want to punish journalists who have worked with US, UK and other western media. My life is at risk and every minute I fear they will try to find and arrest me or kill me.

"As a unionist I feel my life is even more in danger because I was protecting national and international journalists and media workers' rights and I was critical of the Taliban policy, fighting for press freedom and freedom of expression."

Jennifer Rankin in the Guardian: "EU governments have been urged by Brussels to take action to protect journalists, after an increase in physical and online attacks on members of the press. Issuing its first-ever recommendation on journalists’ safety, the European Commission called on EU governments to set up free contact points for media workers who face physical or online threats, in order to ensure a rapid response from police and prosecutors. It also wants to make sure journalists who become victims of crime have assured access to counselling, legal advice and shelters. According to the commission, 908 journalists and media workers were attacked in 23 EU member states in 2020, resulting in physical and mental injuries, as well as damage to property."

Hadley Freeman in the Guardian in her last column on the changing attitude to columnists: "Ideological disagreements were just a normal part of life on the paper back then, and mixing only with those you agree with would have been seen by many journalists as embarrassingly partisan and unprofessional. I don’t know if that’s quite so true any more. I’ve tackled some highlycontroversial subjects in my time, from Israel to – most controversially – the ugliness of combat trousers, so I’m no stranger to heated debate. But where once people could argue with one another and then go out for a drink, now it feels as if people just argue. A difference of opinion becomes a seismic breaking of alliances, and certain subjects are verboten in social situation."

Our new Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries profiled by Press Gazette: "In 2013 Dorries threatened to nail a Sunday Mirror journalist’s testicles to the floor after he doorstepped her to ask about her daughter’s taxpayer-funded job. She tweeted: 'Ben Glaze of the Sunday Mirror has an interest in my three daughters which borders on decidedly creepy/ stalker-esque. Here is a message….'Be seen within a mile of my daughters and I will nail your balls to the floor… using your own front teeth. Do you get that?'”

Media Quotes of the Week: Was Andrew Neil's vision for GB News bound to fail? to Taliban will force foreign journalists out of Afghanistan

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 07:25:00 +0000

Andrew Neil on Twitter: "It’s official: I have resigned as Chairman and Lead Presenter of GB News."

Kelvin MacKenzie on Twitter: "Inevitable that @afneil would quit @GBNEWS as you can't have two captains on the bridge."

Jake Kanter in The Times [£]: "Two camps are said to have emerged at the channel. On one side of the divide are those who consider themselves traditional news journalists, who joined because of the pedigree of senior presenters including Neil and [Simon] McCoy. On the other is a growing roster of populist commentators, who under the leadership of [chief executive Angelos] Frangopoulos are making the station’s agenda more like Fox News."

James Ball in the New Statesman: "Neil’s vision for GB News appeared to be based sincerely on that belief: the channel tried to hire local journalists to report – or at least do talking head spots – from across the country for 'out of London' perspectives. The channel hired various presenters and pundits from the BBC and mainstream outfits. There was an attempt to be a mainstream but non-left channel. The result was, frankly, boring. The gap turned out not to exist – and so an amateurish channel with appalling lighting and sound, no half-hourly bulletins and horribly under-rehearsed presenters, producers and tech, was interesting to watch only as an example of how not to produce television."

Marina Hyde in the Guardian: "You’ll recall that Neil launched GB News with a lengthy series of broadsides at the 'metropolitan mindset' and the failures of the 'London media'. Can’t argue with a lot of that. And yet, it must be said that there has simply never, ever been more 'London media' behaviour than that we have witnessed at GB News since then. Backbiting, flouncing, courtly factionalism, seemingly daily resignations, the cancellation of one of its own presenters, briefing wars, declining to come back to work from the south of France for literally months – my dear, the sheer pompous luvviedom of this station has been absolutely unparalleled."

Daniel Finkelstein in The Times [£]: "Launching a new television station is hard, and I always thought GB News would find things tough. I was surprised they thought there were enough people wanting to watch programmes about cancel culture in the middle of the afternoon. How many viewers would be shouting through to the kitchen: 'I’ll come to dinner in a minute darling, but Dan Wootton is on. He’s just talking to Ann Widdecombe about lockdowns and I want to find out if she’s for them or against them'?"

Private Eye's Adam Mcqueen, interviewed by Press Gazette: "I keep saying to people who take photos of their favourite stories in Private Eye on the Wednesday when we come out and put them all over Twitter: this stuff’s really expensive. Every story that gets in that there’s probably six or seven that each journalist has looked into that haven’t actually come to anything, but you have to put a lot of resources into checking things out and seeing them through. In a lot of cases lawyers get involved, there have been injunctions and things that you ended up spending months and a hell of a lot of money on. And you need the resources to do that stuff. And it is much easier as a lot of publishers [have found out] just to get a load of people who’ve got opinions to come in and spout off about them and with that goes to the picture byline and the personal brand side of things."

BBC News reports: "A complaint by a journalist over 'a complete failure' by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to properly investigate an online threat to sexually attack her baby has been upheld. Patricia Devlin, a crime reporter with the Sunday World, took the case to the Police Ombudsman last year. Ms Devlin received the threat a year ago in a direct message to her Facebook account, signed in the name of neo-Nazi group Combat 18. Police Ombudsman, Marie Anderson, said the threat made against the journalist was 'repulsive'. She added that it was 'concerning that police failed to take measures to arrest the suspect at the earliest opportunity'."

Andrew Roth in the Observer: "For more than a decade, the Kremlin has been engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with Russia’s independent media. Outlets with independent journalists were periodically purged by their businessmen or state owners. Those journalists found new jobs, then founded new media, and sought other means to protect their work, sources and livelihood from the threat of a new government crackdown. But in the past year, since the protests in neighbouring Belarus, the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and Vladimir Putin’s “resetting” of his presidential terms, the Kremlin is taking broader steps to bring the media and individual journalists to heel. Some think it’s possible to keep on reporting, but others see it as a death knell for the profession of journalism."

Ian Burrell in the i on the task of replacing Fran Unsworth at the BBC: "Being BBC director of news and current affairs is probably the most prestigious job in the British news industry, but in the age of social media it is close to becoming an impossible task. Of course, there will always be applicants for a role that comes with immense status and a £340,000 salary but, aside from that, it’s strangely unrewarding and surprisingly powerless. Much of the remit concerns making job cuts and withstanding the political controversies that result from the endless online dissection of the output of a 6,000-strong news division that serves 468m people around the world."

Jake Kanter in The Times [£]: "There is an atmosphere of fear and loathing at the BBC as demoralised news staff fret over creeping politicisation of senior roles, job cuts and a fresh assault on the licence fee. The Times has obtained a copy of the BBC’s 2021 employee survey, which provides a snapshot of the anxiety about the future among rank-and-file staff. Only 41 per cent of employees believe the BBC will succeed over the next three years, according to the survey completed in May."

Los Angeles Times reports: "Journalists from the Etilaat Roz newspaper, Nemat Naqdi, 28, a video journalist, left, and Taqi Daryabi, 22, video editor, show their wounds. They said Taliban fighters tortured and beat them while they were in custody after being arrested while reporting on a women’s rights protest in Kabul, Afghanistan." (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Anthony Bellanger, the International Federation of Journalists' general secretary, interviewed in the Guardian: “The Taliban don’t want to make too many waves right now, but they will want to take control of everything, including the foreign press in Afghanistan. And as often happens in such situations, foreign journalists will be considered agents of foreign governments. I believe what we will see emerge is an official media – a Taliban media – and no women. All other journalists will just disappear."

[£]=paywall

Media Quotes of the Week: From Russian trolls infiltrate newspaper comment sections to 200 health journals in joint warning on climate change

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 07:24:00 +0000

The Times [£] reports: "Pro-Kremlin trolls have been inserting Russian propaganda and disinformation in the reader comments sections of western news organisations, including The Times, researchers claim. A report has concluded that trolls used the comment sections of 32 prominent news websites across 16 countries to create a 'distorted picture of public opinion'. The comments, posted between February and April, were favourable to President Putin and against Britain, the US and other western allies. The researchers from Cardiff University were unable to definitively say who was behind the posts, but believe that they are 'indicative of a Russian state operation'. News outlets whose websites were repeatedly targeted included the Daily Mail, Daily Express and The Times in the UK, Fox News and The Washington Post in the US, Le Figaro in France, Der Spiegel and Die Welt in Germany, and La Stampa in Italy."

Ian Burrell in the New Statesman on the the BBC's Secunder Kermani reporting from Afghanistan: "Bearded and often dressed in a long kurta shirt, Kermani blends easily with crowds in Kabul’s streets and bazaars. But his best reporting, notably interviews with grieving relatives of the Kabul airport atrocity who claimed that American soldiers fired on civilians in panic, is testimony to his ability to gain people’s confidence. 'He’s capable of swimming in a wider range of ponds than almost any other reporter I have come across,' says Ian Katz, his editor at Newsnight. 'That is his amazing capacity to rub along with people and win trust and respect'.”

Max Hastings in The Times [£] reviewing The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Washington Post journalist Craig Whitlock: "Whitlock is a gifted reporter, who with his newspaper deserves full credit for dragging so much evidence into the public domain. This is not a great book, because it lacks literary panache and penetrating analysis. It is, nonetheless, an impressive catalogue of follies and lies. What should shock British readers is that there is no possibility that our own government or courts will release comparable documents about our end of the disaster. We may have lost the art of winning wars, but global Britain can at least boast of its Olympic medal-worthy cover-ups."

Roger Mosey, former head of BBC Television News, in a letter to The Times [£]: "I am unequivocally in favour of free speech. I also believe that there should be a greater diversity of views in broadcast news. However, I am concerned by Ofcom’s ruling that Piers Morgan as the presenter of a news-based programme on a public service channel can give his unfettered opinions on the issues of the day. If Morgan was right to say what he did about the Duchess of Sussex, what was wrong with Emily Maitlis’s more tempered comments about Dominic Cummings? At the time, Ofcom said '[news] presenters should ensure that they do not inadvertently give the impression of setting out personal opinions or views' — and that is surely right. We do not want to hear what Huw Edwards or Julie Etchingham think of the day’s events, and nor should a news breakfast show on a major channel be dominated by the opinions of its presenters. That route leads us to the aggressive polarisation of the media seen in the United States, when the public need in these times is for accurate reporting and cool analysis."

Ex-editor BBC Political Programmes Rob Burley on Twitter: "I’ve worked with @afneil and he’s a brilliant journalist. He’s never been about Fox News style journalism. If he is getting out of GB News - I don’t know - to avoid that sort of environment then that can’t be easy and is the right thing for him to do."

Owen Jones on Twitter: "I keep being bombarded with requests from @GBNEWS producers to go on their channel (obviously I say no or ignore). I’ve checked with other leftwing commentators - the exact same story. As their audience collapse they’re looking to us to save them with outrage clicks."

From The Times [£] obit on showbiz correspondent Donald Zec, who has died aged 102: "Still not a bona-fide reporter, he decided to take his chance at the Daily Mirror. His first assignment was covering a nightclub fire in Soho, clacking out 200 words that began with the turgid introduction: 'Firemen were called to extinguish a blaze'. His news editor declared, 'This is shit', before handing it to an old hand who showed him the ropes: 'Clad only in her scanties, a blonde, 22-year-old nightclub hostess climbed along a 30ft parapet in a Soho fire last night to rescue her pet cat Timothy.' As Zec observed in the British Journalism Review: 'Here, in a single sentence of slick hyperbole, were all the elements of popular journalism — sex, heroism, drama and pet-worship'.”

Victor Pickard for the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) think tank: "In the wake of a global pandemic, democracies are newly sensitized to how local journalism provides critical information for vitally important issues, ranging from public health to conducting fair elections. But despite this new-found respect for the fourth estate, the newspaper industry has continued to implode, losing 57% of its employeesbetween 2008 and 2020, resulting in hundreds of closures and news deserts sprouting up across the country. Given that the devastation of local journalism will only continue, such glaring market failure should compel government intervention. Public goods — often understood as vital necessities in theory but rarely treated as such in practice — require public investments and protections from unfettered commercialism. Subjecting these services entirely to the market gradually leads to disinvestment over time. In other words, the journalism crisis is a human-made disaster. Allowing the market to drive local journalism into the ground is a political choice."

Ray Snoddy on Mediatel: "They may only be the first falling leaves of a difficult autumn to come, but parts of the Brexit-supporting media are starting to show signs of responding to current post- Brexit realities. Gone are the uncritical promotions of the 'sunny uplands' and of the politicians who could not see a single disadvantage in leaving the European Union. Instead, the national newspapers who so enthusiastically campaigned for Getting Brexit Done, now have to face up to 'supply chain' difficulties that are leaving gaps in supermarket shelves and the global notoriety of the disappearing McDonald's milkshakes."

British Medical Journal reports: "More than 200 health journals have called on governments to take emergency action to tackle the 'catastrophic harm to health' from climate change. A joint editorial says that while recent targets to reduce emissions and conserve biodiversity are welcome, they are not enough and need to be matched with credible short and longer term plans. The editorial was published simultaneously on 6 September in 233 international titles including The BMJ, the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, the East African Medical Journal, the Chinese Science Bulletin, the National Medical Journal of India, and the Medical Journal of Australia. The editorial says: 'As health professionals, we must do all we can to aid the transition to a sustainable, fairer, resilient, and healthier world. We, as editors of health journals, call for governments and other leaders to act, marking 2021 as the year that the world finally changes course'.”

[£]=paywall

Media Quotes of the Week: From tv crew feel guilty as forced to leave Afghanistan to civil servants are gutting the UK's Freedom of Information Act

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 07:24:00 +0000

Sky's chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay on leaving Afghanistan: "The operational commanders wanted us to stay to the very end and leave with them, but the orders to remove us came from the MoD or from Whitehall, or both. We had fought to stay for days but ultimately we found ourselves on a military base and we were being ejected - there is nothing you can do. It was all conducted in a cordial manner, but we WERE kicked out. I suspect the prospect of the withdrawal being filmed in heart-breaking detail was a risk the government wasn't prepared to take, because this will end badly for thousands, I guarantee it...

"We felt guilty we were leaving - myself, my producer Dominique, Sky colleague Martin, and Toby. An easy exit for a group of journalists guaranteed safety by our soldiers and our governments. I'll take the jibes and the scorn for leaving. But I will say this: if we hadn't been there, nobody would have seen any of the scenes of horror and desperation that have engulfed this entire operation, none of the incredible work by the British military, and the Foreign and Home Office staff."

Sharif Hassan on Twitter: "Alireza Ahmadi, a dear journalist friend and his younger brother, were among the dead victims of yesterday’s #KabulAirport attack. He worked for different local media outlets for over a decade as a writer, photographer and reporter, giving voice for his people. RIP brother."

A female reporter in Kandahar, quoted by The Times [£]: “The Taliban’s ban of female journalists from TV and radio is not a surprise for me. It was expected as the Taliban started stopping women from work in media, banks, activism and other jobs before they took Kabul. Today, no female presenter or anchor were seen on TV in Kandahar. It’s very sad. I know many female journalists who are in hiding or have fled. There is no space left at all for working women in Afghanistan.”

Hugh Tomlinson in The Times [£]: "The boom in Afghanistan’s free press was hailed as one of the greatest virtues to come out of the years of conflict that followed the US-led invasion in 2001. The birth of independent broadcasters and radio stations provided job opportunities for a new generation of educated, young Afghans, including many women given the chance to work for the first time. In the months before the final Taliban offensive, however, female journalists and media workers were murdered, apparently to frighten women out of the workplace."

Piers Morgan on Twitter: "I’m delighted OFCOM has endorsed my right to disbelieve the Duke & Duchess of Sussex’s incendiary claims to Oprah Winfrey, many of which have proven to be untrue. This is a resounding victory for free speech and a resounding defeat for Princess Pinocchios. Do I get my job back?"

The Times [£] reports: "Morgan said that ITV would have to make a public apology if it wanted to restore him to Good Morning Britain. ITV sources said that executives had no 'current plans' to give him his job back, although there is speculation among insiders that the broadcaster may return to its star presenter. 'I’d put money on it,' one source said."

NUJ broadcasting organiser Paul Siegert in a statement on claims the Government is going to set the BBC licence rise below the rate of inflation: "Cutting funding to the BBC, via a below inflation rise in the licence fee, will mean the BBC will be able to offer less to the public - less local and national news, less journalism, less on the radio, website and TV, and less diversity and less quality programming and output."

The Sun in a statement: “On 17 September 2019 we published a story titled ‘Tragedy that Haunts Stokes’ Family’ which described a tragic incident that had occurred to Deborah Stokes, the mother of Ben Stokes, in New Zealand in 1988. The article caused great distress to the Stokes family, and especially to Deborah Stokes. We should not have published the article. We apologise to Deborah and Ben Stokes. We have agreed to pay them damages and their legal costs.”

The Guardian in a leader: "Whitehall is too fond of secrecy. It is absurd to think that it was once forbidden to name the heads of the UK intelligence services. In the past decade, revelations from WikiLeaks to Edward Snowden to the Pegasus project have demonstrated the extent of official impunity when it comes to national security. The sensible political response would be to halt such actions and impose a system of oversight and democratic control. Putting state activities beyond sight with laws that control the press would represent a new stage in the growth of authoritarian government in Britain."

Ray Snoddy on Mediatel: "Can anything save Channel 4 now from an unnecessary, pointless and potential damaging privatisation? At least the Channel seems to have a new, powerful ally – God – or at the very least, Bishops of the Church of England. Archbishop Cottrell of York has written to Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden saying that Channel 4 offers 'something unique and precious in the British public service broadcasting ecology' and how important it was that such important programming should not be lost. The Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines was even sharper in his denunciation. The privatisation plan was 'ideologically driven and therefore short-sighted and wrong, ' he wrote. The voice of the bishops might have achieved more purchase from devout Anglican Theresa May than the occasional, convenient Catholic, Boris Johnson."

Chris Cook in the Financial Times on the Freedom of Information Act: "There was no golden age of the FOIA: reporters always needed to disguise what they actually wanted. The law gives the government the right to keep some types of information secret, and many civil servants have long seen their job as stretching those bits of law to cover any information that might be important. Some institutions, particularly the Cabinet Office, have habitually disobeyed the law. Increasingly, though, it appears officials are openly trying to keep secrets secret...MPs are unlikely to vote for the removal of the Freedom of Information Act: after all, it would look pretty rum. But they do not need to. The civil service is quietly gutting it."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From Taliban already threatening and harassing journalists to Society of Editors withdraws 'UK press not racist' statement

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Slattery) — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 07:27:00 +0000

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a statement: "Publicly, the Taliban have undertaken to protect journalists and respect press freedom but the reality in Afghanistan is completely different. The new authorities are already imposing very harsh constraints on the news media even if they are not yet official.The list of new obligations for journalists is getting longer by the day. Less than a week after their spokesman pledged to respect freedom of the press 'because media reporting will be useful to society,' the Taliban are subjecting journalists to harassment, threats and sometimes violence."

Jeremy Dear, International Federation of Journalists deputy general secretary, on journalists in Afghanistan: "It is an incredibly challenging time for media workers. Many are fearful for their lives, women journalists are being prevented from working, some media have been forced to close, hundreds have fled or are trying to leave the country. At the same time others are trying to continue to work as journalsts but with a threat hanging over them and with severe restrictions on what they can report. Despite the propaganda that there would be no revenge by the taliban there have been reports of door to door searches for journalists and threats against many of them...We had one instance of a family being threatened and told the only way they would be left in peace is if their daughter - a journalist - married the local Taliban commander."

The Committee to Protect Journalists in a statement: "As the Taliban attacks reporters, searches their homes, and takes two female state TV anchors off the air, CPJ calls on the group to stand by its public commitment to allow a free and independent press, and to guarantee that all journalists are able to work safely and without interference. CPJ also urges the United States to ensure the safety of Afghan journalists by facilitating safe passage out of the country and providing emergency visas."

Deutsche Welle (DW) Germany’s international broadcaster reports:"Taliban fighters hunting a DW journalist have shot dead one member of his family and seriously injured another. The Taliban were conducting a house-to-house search to try and find the journalist, who now works in Germany. Other relatives were able to escape at the last moment and are now on the run. DW Director General Peter Limbourg issued a strong condemnation and called on the German government to take action. 'The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban yesterday is inconceivably tragic, and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves,' Limbourg said."

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet in a statement condemning the actions of anti-vaccine protestors who occupied the London headquarters of ITV News and Channel 4 News, targeted journalists including the Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow: "Journalists have to be free to go about their work without abuse and harassment. It is disturbing and concerning to see the vitriol being expressed against media workers – rhetoric that has been whipped up and cynically exploited in some quarters. Today’s occupation is not an isolated example – it’s the latest in a series of incidents in which reporters and photographers have been hounded and abused – in the streets, in their workplaces and even at their home. More needs to be done by the police and by employers to step up security and clamp down on abuse."

Iain Dale on Twitter on the political row over Jess Brammar being up for a new post overseeing the BBC’s domestic and international news channels. "Given the BBC has banned its employees from defending @jessbrammar against misogynistic & unfair attacks, especially from the Mail, let me do so. Most political journos have 'views'. The key is if those views dictate their journalism. In my experience, she's a total professional."

BBC insider, quoted in The Times [£]: “What’s next, is the government of the day going to express an opinion on the next political editor of the BBC, or the next presenter of the Today programme or Newsnight? It’s disturbing. The BBC is now in a no-win situation. If the BBC doesn’t appoint her, then it looks weak, callow, and partial because it’s giving in to the government of the day about something so minor. If it does appoint her, it will be a massive culture war issue.”

Dawn Alford, executive director of the Society of Editors, in a statement: "Our previous executive director resigned following a statement he issued in which he said the press was not racist or bigoted. That statement didn’t accurately reflect the complex, challenging and changing processes that all society – including the media – is experiencing. It also did not reflect the continuing actions of the Society of Editors to support publishers in improving diversity and inclusion within our industry. We have taken down this initial statement from our website and consider this to be a formal withdrawal of it."

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