Media Quotes of the Week: Is Parly paedo probe payback by Fleet Street? to Hansen on Twitter

Ian Burrell in the Independent: "We are now seeing payback for what many papers regard as Westminster’s disproportionate response to the misdemeanours of Andy Coulson and some of his underlings. The press coverage of Parliament’s paedophiles has been awesome to behold – that is, awesome in the traditional sense of jaw-dropping, rather than punching the air in delight. It refutes the popular notion that Fleet Street’s muscles have been withered by the debilitating impact of the changing media landscape."

Don Hale in the Daily Star Sunday on what happened when he was editor of the Bury Messenger and tried to investigate claims of about politicians involved with a paedophile group: “I was sworn to secrecy by ­Special Branch at the risk of jail if I repeated any of the allegations."

Pic:BBC

John sweeney ‏@johnsweeneyroar on Twitter: "Today is a great day for Church of Scientology, North Korea, Barclay Twins, Glencore etc. I've been made redundant from #BBCPanorama. Byeee"

Former cabinet minister Cheryl Gillan on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour: "I sat at the breakfast table with my male colleague, saying I cannot believe we have all these exciting politicians into key positions and what people are talking about it is what they are wearing, their makeup, how tight their jacket is and what their shoes look like. I think it's just insulting."

Michael Wolff @MichaelWolffNYC on Twitter: "Wouldn't it be a hoot if Murdoch was just beginning the most active and expansive phase of his career?"

Adam Boulton asked on Sky News if he wants to take a pause: “No, I’ve swallowed a fly, that’s alright.”

Socialist Worker: Headline and column caused outrage

Owen Jones in the Guardian on the Socialist Worker column on Eton schoolboy Horatio Chapple who was killed in a polar bear attack: "Whoever wrote that Socialist Worker column thought they were being oh-so-revolutionary, so courageously and provocatively sticking it to the man. But all they were doing is laughing at a dead teenager, whose last moments were no less painful or terrifying because of his cosseted childhood. It is socialism with the heart cut out, devoid of the humanity and compassion that must surely underpin it. That might be their socialism. It certainly isn't mine."

Matthew Parris in The Times [£]: "The enemies of internet freedom will advance in a series of individually minor incursions, each individually arguable — usually pleading “emergency”. The best hope for free speech is that a Western government will overstep the mark and some appalling miscarriage of justice will occur, turning the tide of public opinion. However, short of Clare Balding being shot by mistake as an Islamic extremist on the basis of an appalling IT muddle-up at the Home Office internet surveillance department, the outlook is bleak. Arguments in principle, like this column, will be lost in the wind."

The Grey Cardigan on TheSpinAlley: "I came across the following charming job advert [placed by Newsquest] on Holdthefrontpage: 'Our regional group editing services department, based in Newport, now has vacancies for Graduate Copy Editors. Working as part of a team, typical candidates will be qualified to the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism or have passed some of the modules associated to this qualification. Applications will also be considered from those who are educated to degree level. They must be highly motivated and be able to work to tight deadlines, spot mistakes and have a flair for creating great headlines.' So let me get this right. The legions of experienced, knowledgeable sub-editors who Newsquest have made redundant around the country – most of whom will have progressed to the job through the traditional route of trainee reporter, senior reporter and newsdesk duties – are being replaced by callow youths who may or may not have any actual journalistic training and have never actually done the job. I wonder what those angry hacks who insisted that the Newport hub was manned by talented, experienced subs have to say now?"

Roy Greenslade on his Guardian Media blog on plans by Archant to centralise subbing in Norwich: "The only winners out of this are the owners and their bean-counters. As the NUj points out, Archant's chief executive, Adrian Jeakings, was paid £284,000 plus a cash supplement of £82,000 last year. The same situation exists among the managements at all the major corporate publishers. They are growing wealthy by making others poor. Ain't capitalism wonderful?"

Express & Star editor Keith Harrison interviewed by Steve Dyson in InPublishing: “My personal view is that a metered paywall is likely to be the most successful model for newspaper websites.”

Mike Lowe ‏@cotslifeeditor on Twitter: " 'Hi Mike. Richard here from XXX. I hope you don't mind me reaching out.' Reach out all you want, pal. Just don't touch."

Alan Hansen in his farewell column in the Daily Telegraph: "Twitter has changed everything, to the point whereby you not only have to make sure that what you say is right, but also that you say nothing wrong. There has never been a hiding place in the media, but nowadays, you can find yourself being judged within 10 seconds of publication or broadcast."

Local press campaigning journalism is something to be proud of in era shamed by hacking scandal

I enjoyed writing this article on why the local press matters for InPublishing  which was based on my experience as a judge in the 2013 Regional Press Awards.

One of the points I made is that I love the internet and Twitter but still get all my important local news about planning, the health service and local government from my weekly newspaper, the West Sussex Gazette.

It was the same when I lived in London and got brilliant local news coverage from the Islington Tribune, sister paper to the excellent Camden New Journal which won campaign of the year in the Regional Press Awards.

What I liked was the enthusiasm of the journalists at the awards do despite the problems that have beset the sector. One reporter said to me: “Apart from the shit pay and the long hours, it’s the best job in the world.”

The Regional Press Awards showed that campaigning journalism by local newspapers does make a difference and is something to be proud of in an era shamed by the hacking scandal.

Media Quotes of the Week: From sympathy for Andy Coulson to Germans make a prat of Piers

Andy Coulson: AFP/Getty

Jonathan Aitken in the Telegraph in an open letter to Andy Coulson: "Privately, I sense a tide of sympathy welling up for you. I do not believe I am alone in taking the view that some police officers and some prosecutors have made worse – although non-criminal – errors of judgment than yours in this saga. Your present pariah status will surely fade, perhaps faster than you think if the prosecution go on demanding additional pounds of your flesh. Certainly the prison community, in stark contrast to the legal community, will be saying that the continual hounding of you 'ain’t proper'.’’

Piers Morgan on David Cameron and Andy Coulson in the Mail on Sunday: "Our great leader made no effort to contact Andy during his excruciatingly humiliating and painful ordeal. And he couldn’t find a single word of support for him in his darkest hour. Instead, he chose to deliberately pour petrol on to the flames of Andy’s immolation. That’s not the behaviour of a friend, it’s the behaviour of a self-serving, politically motivated, soulless weasel."

Chris Huhne in the Guardian: "The custodial sentences are ridiculous; they serve no public purpose. The conviction itself will be the most severe part of Coulson's punishment. If he should make amends, it would surely have been better to work for a worthy cause than cost the taxpayer nearly £40,000 a year to bang him up."

Peter Preston in the Observer:  "And the true irony of hacking – from boring gossip about royals to the Milly Dowler tale that didn't come close to making the front page of the News of the World – is in how few instances hacking produced big headlines and extra copies crossing newsagents' counters. It was all pretty exciting in its introverted old newsroom way, one guesses. Call Sam Spade (Glenn Mulcaire) and get him to check. But 5,000 victims, 5,000 stories, 5,000 or 50,000 more papers sold? There the chain of calumny breaks. So much harm and sorrow to the people involved, so little actual gain."

Mick Hume on Press Gazette: "Of course journalists are 'not above the law'. But neither should they be subject to special prosecution and persecution, as has happened in the UK over the past three years with the arrest of more than 60 tabloid journalists. Strangely, few of those high-minded media types at the BBC or Channel 4 news now protesting about the jailing of journalists in Egypt have offered a peep of protest about the criminalisation of tabloid journalism in Britain – and not because anybody has taped over their mouths."

Jack of Kent ‏@JackofKent  on Twitter: "What may come out in #DanielMorgan inquiry may make many current hacking allegations seem like a celeb-ridden garden party. Serious stuff."

The Times [£] in a leader: "When the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Google should delete links to 'inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant' information, it was wrong in principle. Now it is clear that the ruling was wrong, foolish and unenforceable in practice too."

Max Hastings in the Mail: "One of the most demented of Lord Justice Leveson’s recommendations was that, in some circumstances, newspapers should have to bear the costs of libel cases — even if they won. In other words, even if a court found that a newspaper had been telling the truth, it would have to pay the bill. Now, in the spirit of Leveson, the European Court has gone further. It offers an explicit licence to anybody who wants to airbrush their own CV."

Nick Pollard in the Guardian: "Newspapers get more stories than the broadcasters, by and large, and the broadcasters follow them up. The broadcast production effort is so much more complicated than print. The print people have more time to get stories. And they have a much better network of stringers and sources.”

Daily Mail in a leader: "For a timely reminder of the vital role of the free Press in giving a voice to those with nowhere else to turn, look no further than the Government’s belated launch of two inquiries into the Establishment’s treatment of child abuse."

Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief, in the Guardian News and Media Annual Review: "The Guardian is held up as a shining beacon of what journalism should be."

Sports News...

Piers Morgan @piersmorgan on Twitter after Brazil are crushed 7:1 by Germany: "I backed Brazil to win, Fred to score & declared Luiz my man of the tournament. I feel a complete and utter prat."

When Morgan was editor of the Mirror he declared "football war" on Germany during the 1996 European championship. England lost [on penalties].

• Not much sympathy here from Bill Silver, commenting via Facebook: "Oh what bliss: Jonathan Aitken - a convicted liar - sympathises with Coulson, Chris Huhne, a master of integrity and moral standing, thinks Coulson's sentence ridiculous and doesn't serve a useful purpose - Huhne doesn't work for a worthy cause does he? No, he works for Chris Huhne! Piers Morgan calls Cameron a weasel in one sentence, and himself as a complete and utter prat in another. Which is more accurate? Piers? Piers? I can't hear you ..............."

Media Quotes of the Week: Rolf Harris and the Leveson effect, more hacking trial reaction and is the Daily Star becoming the new Sunday Sport?

Mr Justice Saunders at the end of the hacking trial, as quoted by the Daily Telegraph: "All the defendants that I have to sentence, save for Mr Mulcaire are distinguished journalists who had no need to behave as they did to be successful. They all achieved a great deal without resorting to the unlawful invasion of other people's privacy. Those achievements will now count for nothing. I accept that their reputations and their careers are irreparably damaged."

The Guardian: "Lawyers for Rolf Harris used a controversial passage in the Leveson report to try to dissuade the media from naming the entertainer after his arrest on suspicion of sexual offences.
The London law firm Harbottle & Lewis cited Lord Justice Leveson's contentious proposal that the public should be prevented from knowing the names of arrest suspects in all but "exceptional" circumstances."

The Daily Mail in a leader: "It was only when Harris was named by journalists – four months after police first interviewed him, in relation to a single victim – that the dam broke and the other women were able to come forward. Disturbingly, post-Leveson, there are many examples of police holding, arresting and even charging suspects in secret. This chilling practice is not only an affront to open justice and the hallmark of totalitarian regimes. It also hands a gift to predators like Harris who depend upon their frightened victims believing they are on their own."

BBC Radio 4 Today @BBCr4today on Twitter: "Liberal MP Cyril Smith wrote to the BBC in 1976 asking it not to investigate the 'private lives of certain MPs'."

From HoldTheFrontPage: "Google yesterday notified Newsquest Oxfordshire, publishers of the Oxford Mail, that it had removed from its search listings a story about Robert Daniels-Dwyer, an archaeology specialist who was convicted of trying to steal £200 worth of Christmas presents from Boots in Oxford in 2006. It follows the recent ruling by the European Court of Justice which allows people to apply to the search engine giant to have 'irrelevant' or 'out of date' stories removed."

Peter Oborne in the Telegraph: "Today’s opposition leader, Ed Miliband, is suffering from exactly the same treatment as Kinnock, Major and Hague. In the wake of the phone hacking trial, the Murdoch newspapers – confronted so bravely by the Labour leader three years ago – are back in full cry. They have long memories at News International – now News UK – and may believe they have Mr Miliband’s measure. But the company is not alone: Mr Miliband is being hunted by nearly all of Fleet Street."

Pic: BBC

Jill Parkin on Press Gazette on the demolition of the Yorkshire Post building in Leeds:"Bulldozed concrete doesn’t speak of past love. All the same, this was a building packed with life – not just of those who worked there, but of those whose lives filled the columns every day. And for that, its dust deserves a nod of recognition."

Piers Morgan @piersmorgan: "Humbled to have been voted Britain's most influential journalist on social media by @pressgazette ...well, not really. I deserved it."

The Spectator in a leader: "All but 13 members of parliament voted for a Bill to end press freedom. Mercifully, this ‘Royal Charter’ has been ignored, as the press has instead declined to be regulated by politicians and retains its independence as it continues what is, for many, a fight for survival. Newspapers have lost more than a third of their circulation since the hacking scandal erupted. Each day, 1,500 people stop buying newspapers and never start again. Rather than being too strong, the press is weaker now than at any time in modern history. This was the ideal time for the enemies of press freedom to pounce. Luckily, the threat has been seen off, the law is being allowed to run its course and press freedom has been conserved. This is about the only comfort to be drawn from an episode which has reflected so badly on so many."

Alex Massie in The Spectator: "I also don’t think it is wrong or disgraceful for The Guardian (with some assistance from the BBC) to try to destroy Murdoch. That’s their prerogative. But let’s at least be honest and acknowledge that’s the aim."

Tim Adams in the Observer: "The flashbulb detail of the News of the World's methods revealed in court showed a level of intrusion in the private lives of individuals that often seemed disturbed or pathological."

Tim Crook on The Conversation: on the hacking trial: "The trial’s context is a determined mood in the British state along with the country’s political, cultural, academic, and entertainment elite to reset the capacity of the media to embarrass, outrage, insult and mock the peccadilloes, indulgences and hypocrisies of the rich and powerful."

Michael Wolff on USA Today: "Various of his biographers, myself included, have learned the hard way about Rupert Murdoch: Just when you think he's peaked or has hit an impassable wall, the chips break his way, and he keeps going on, his story ever bigger and more operatic than before. The acquittal last week of Rebekah Brooks, his former top lieutenant in Britain, along with most of the other defendants in the London phone-hacking and police-bribery trial — in the British press, "the trial of the century" — is a reversal of fortunes in Britain on the order of, say, were the top Watergate defendants to have gotten off in America. It creates a topsy-turvy sort of history in which Murdoch, surely mortally wounded, suddenly rises from the battlefield, jauntily dusting himself off."

Peter Jukes ‏@peterjukes whose Twitter coverage of the hacking case was crowd funded: "If news organisations relied on my detail, and therefore didn't employ a court reporter - then this is a bad precedent...For that reason - undercutting other court reporters while giving news organisations a free feed - I doubt I'll repeat the experiment."

George Monbiot in the Guardian: "In countries such as ours, the principal threat to freedom of expression comes not from government but from within the media. Censorship, in most cases, happens in the newsroom."

Sunday Sport ‏@thesundaysport on Twitter: "So, @Daily_Star you want to play that game, do you? "

Media Quotes of the Week: Hacking verdicts, outrage at jailing of AJ journalists in Egypt and a farewell to Felix Dennis in his own words

Prime Minister David Cameron after Andy Coulson was found guilty of conspiracy to hack phones, as reported by BBC News: "I am extremely sorry I employed him. It was the wrong decision."

Peter Oborne in the Telegraph: "The phone hacking affair has displayed the Prime Minister at his worst – a shallow, amoral, conniving careerist, determined to secure high office at any cost."

The Guardian in a leader: "The vast majority of journalists in this country have never hacked a phone, bribed a public official or used a private detective. Even those who worked on the tiny handful of (albeit influential) papers that regularly trampled on privacy often felt deeply uneasy about it. Numerous individuals within the News of the World newsroom guided Nick Davies's investigations into phone hacking because they felt so uncomfortable about the practices going on around them. So, most journalists feel no regret about the cleansing of the stables, even if they feel conflicted about the prospect of journalists facing jail sentences for crimes committed."

Nick Davies on Coulson and Brooks in the Guardian: "With all the intellectual focus of a masturbatory adolescent, their papers spied in the bedrooms of their targets, dragging out and humiliating anybody who dared to be gay or to have an affair or to engage in any kind of sexual activity beyond that approved by a Victorian missionary."

The Times in a leader [£]: "The conviction of Coulson shows that some newspapers have clearly fallen short of the required standards and it is right to have a tougher regulator. The verdict on Mrs Brooks, however, reveals that the practice of phone hacking did not go to the very top, as critics have alleged. To rush to draconian regulation using a royal charter under the ultimate supervision of parliament, as the establishment and the pressure group Hacked Off advocate, looks even more of a disaster today than it ever has."

Rebekah Brooks, on BBC News: "I am innocent of the crimes that I was charged with and I feel vindicated by the unanimous verdicts...When I was arrested, it was in the middle of a maelstrom of controversy, of politics and of comment. Some of that was fair but much of it was not so I am very grateful to the jury for coming to their decision."

Michel Wolff, USA Today: "Coulson is hardly the biggest fish, but rather, a pawn in the larger Murdoch organisation. Coulson is the fifth such pawn in the Murdoch organization to be convicted of hacking, suggesting that either Murdoch and his other senior executives were right, that if hacking occurred, it occurred without them knowing, or, confirming what others have assumed, that the higher-ups would walk while the lower-downs would take the fall."

Al Jazeera PR ‏@AlJazeera  on Twitter: "We will continue with resolve until Peter, Baher and Mohammed are free#FreeAJStaff"

World Association of Newspapers secretary general Larry Kilman: "We are disappointed and outraged at this judgement. It is an abhorrent abuse of press freedom principles. These journalists have been jailed for simply doing their jobs and journalism is not a crime."

Jeremy Bowen ‏@BowenBBC  on Twitter: "Disgraceful 7 year sentences handed down to Al Jazeera journalists in Cairo. Egyptian euphoria after Mubarak's fall feels a world away."

Roger Mosey ‏@rogermosey on  Twitter: "Journalism is vital for a free world. #Egypt should be condemned by all for jailing people for doing their job." #AJTrial

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet: "This is an outrageous decision and travesty of justice made by a kangaroo court...The NUJ is calling on all media organisations to register their protest in support of colleagues at Al Jazeera and all the Egyptian journalists who have been attacked and arrested by their country's authorities."

The Times [£] in a leader: "The prosecutors’ office refused to share crucial documentation with the defence team and so the journalists found themselves in the dock alongside the ghost of Franz Kafka: pronounced guilty, on the flimsiest of evidence, of distorted coverage about anti-protest laws. In fact the journalists were caught in the political crossfire between Cairo and Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera and which backs the cause of the Muslim Brotherhood. The trial was more about snubbing Qatar than reaching a just decision."

BBC director of news and current affairs James Harding, as quoted by HoldTheFrontPage: “We share a belief in local journalism because we have a responsibility to the country we live in to ensure that local journalism gets back on its feet. We may compete like cats in a sack for stories, but, in the end, we have a common purpose. And, to my mind, the squabbles in recent years between the local press and the BBC are getting us all nowwhere. We have looked like a circular firing squad.”

Nick Cohen on his Spectator blog commenting on Steve Coogan being appointed a patron of Index on Censorship: "I have looked everywhere. I have Googled, and asked around. But I can find no evidence that Steve Coogan has ever taken the trouble to defend freedom of speech at home or abroad."

Rod Liddle on Index on Censorship in the Sunday Times [£]: "This fine body was set up in 1972 to publish the suppressed works of authors and journalists — largely, although not exclusively, from behind the Iron Curtain, where freedom of expression did not exist. Its job, then, was to campaign against censorship and in favour of openness. I am labouring this point not for you, but just in case any of the smug munchkins who run the organisation — such as its chairman, David Aaronovitch— might be reading this. The organisation has just accepted the comedian Steve Coogan as a patron, which is a bit like Age UK forming a constructive working partnership with Dr Harold Shipman."

Pic: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Neil Kinnock on Ed Miliband in the Observer: "A hostile press which thought he was a soft target have not forgiven him for proving them wrong – and the vindictiveness will continue. It won't stop him; his genuine strengths of thought, action and toughness will get through and help to win victory."

Dan Snow in the Observer: "Anyone who doesn't love Twitter is an idiot. They're being a ridiculous Luddite or taking a stance. Twitter is a way of filtering the news. You tailor your own timeline so who you follow reflects your interests. Mine is populated by politics and history. It's a phenomenal news service, far better for me than any conventional news outlet because I built it myself. I've made new friends on Twitter, interacted with some incredible people, had some of my most satisfying professional experiences and found out lots of fascinating things about the world. It's been a hugely enriching experience."

Danny Baker @prodnose on England's early World Cup exit: "I sincerely think all UK media and TV pundits should have to return home with the team. #GravyTrainOverNow"

Roy Greenslade on his MediaGuardian blog on the row over MailOnline lifting copy: "If Mail Online drives other publishers to the wall, where will it get its copy in future?

Publisher Felix Dennis, who died this week, interviewed in the Observer last June: "It's not quite right, is it? To shag all the women, have all the money and two cases of Petrus in my wine cellar and then write poetry that sells and that people love. It shouldn't be allowed. That's what annoys people. They think that I've got to get what's coming to me and no doubt I will."

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Media Quotes of the Week: Paxman exits with bash at Twitter to backlash over partly secret terror trial

Jeremy Paxman interviewed by Jon Snow on Channel 4 News: "I don't want to be followed by anyone...Twitter is for people who have nothing going on between their ears, or in their lives."

Raymond Snoddy @RaymondSnoddy on Twitter: "Paxo's complete inability to understand power of twitter as world's breaking news source, as seen on C4 News reason enough for his departure."

Michael White on his Politics Blog on Jeremy Paxman: "Some viewers loved him, but others could spot the paradox that Paxman was part of the establishment he so robustly thumped at bedtime, an upmarket safety valve. As such the act does not satisfy Ukip voters, Greens or Scots Nationalists, let alone angry trolls on new-fangled, interactive social media, which did not exist in 1989. The younger generation of interviewers, an Eddie Mair, Evan Davis or Mishal Husain, are less inquisitorial or accusatory, more new media-savvy, prepared to be taken to task online themselves. At 64, the old war horse may be getting out in time."

Francis Wheen resigning from Index on Censorship over the appointment of Steve Coogan as a patron, as reported by the Daily Mail: "Coogan by his own admission, as far as I can see, has never been involved in any such defence of free expression or anything even remotely connected with freedom of speech or the Press except for being involved in Hacked Off, which most journalists regard as an enemy of the free Press."

The Sun @TheSunNewspaper on Twitter: "Our website is currently being hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army. To keep reading the real story about Syria, buy The Sun tomorrow..."

Labour Party spokesman, quoted by BBC News, on Ed Miliband's regrets over posing with the Sun's World Cup issue: "Ed Miliband was promoting England's bid to win the World Cup and is proud to do so. But he understands the anger that is felt towards the Sun over Hillsborough by many people in Merseyside and he is sorry to those who feel offended."

Sebastian Payne on the Spectator blog: "By posing with the paper and then apologising, Ed has created an unnecessary media storm. Aside from the sheer bizarreness of the picture, it’s another example of his difficult relationship with the press. For one thing, it’s now pretty certain that Labour can not expect a warm relationship with The Sun between now and next year’s election."

Matt Wells ‏@MatthewWells on Twitter: "Our Brazil v Mexico liveblogger @GreggBakowski is praying he doesn't have to type referee Cuneyt Cakir too quickly."

From the Washington Post: "One of the most historic journalism sites of the past half-century will soon vanish, following a decision by the Arlington County Board on Saturday to demolish the building and parking garage where FBI official Mark Felt [Deep Throat] secretly met with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward during the Watergate investigation."

alan rusbridger ‏@arusbridger on Twitter: "Govt refuses to confirm of deny if GCHQ Tempora programme actually exists… but *if* it does, it is definitely legal."

Leader in The Times [£] on the terrorism trial which is partly to be held in secret: "The trial cannot be attended by the public, but can be attended by accredited journalists. It’s relatively easy to become an accredited journalist. That’s no secret. Attending the trial, these journalists will be allowed to make notes. They will not be allowed to take these notes home, however, because they will be secret, even from the people who have written them. Some journalists may of course have excellent memories, but they are advised not to ask themselves too many questions. Ultimately, the judge will decide which of these secrets they are allowed to share. This is not just sinister. It is also a ridiculous fudge. In allowing the publication of names and a media presence the Court of Appeal pays lip service to the notion of open justice. Yet the restrictions that remain are unprecedented. Somehow the government has convinced the Court of Appeal that they are required. As to how they convinced them, though, that’s the big secret."

Nick Cohen in The Observer: "I can see the need for 'accredited' correspondents being embedded with British forces. But embedded correspondents at the Old Bailey? Who is going to accredit them? MI5? What happens if the Guardian, say, sends one of its many reporters who have exposed the secret state? Can that same state decide that he or she is not the type of journalist it wants to hear secret evidence and demand a less awkward replacement? Editors ought to tell the judiciary and the government to go to hell. But it is hard for journalists to refuse to cover a story – covering stories is what we do, after all. What if most news organisations refuse to embed themselves in an English courtroom but one of them goes along, legitimises this charade and gets a better story? The state's offer looks preposterous, but, believe me, it feeds on editors' neuroses. No journalist wants to be last with the news."

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