Quotes of the Week: From nightmare interview with Ginger Baker to Fleet Street's Fergie frenzy

Michael Hann on the Guardian's Music Blog on interviewing drummer Ginger Baker (top) in front of a live audience: "I've had peculiar interviews before. I once sat on the floor in the dressing rooms at Spurs' training ground to talk to Sol Campbell, while John Scales stood just to my right, listening in. He was naked. His penis kept dangling in and out of my eyeline at disconcertingly close range. But I've never had any interview experience quite so unsettling as half an hour with Ginger Baker in front of a couple of hundred people. It's not something I want to repeat." 

• Mark Ellen interviewed an irascible Ginger Baker for The Word in 2009, you can read an extract here.

Les Hinton on Twitter re-departure of Ian Katz from Guardian to edit Newsnight: Les Hinton ‏@leshinton  "Do @guardian journos feel a little abandoned with the popular heir-apparent editor jumping ship just when things get rocky?" 

Police Federation chairman Steve Williams, as quoted by the Daily Mail: "There’s been a sea change on the back of Leveson. Cops are very reluctant to speak to the media and say how it really is."

Simon Jenkins in the Guardian: "Giving in to terrorism has given data intrusion, "back door" surveillance and press restriction all the best tunes. The Pentagon pleads 9/11 and Whitehall pleads 7/7. Lord Justice Leveson can only plead Hugh Grant, but he is enough. They all say they want a "responsible press". But the direction of travel is the same, towards the pollution of freedom. Acts of government that would once have caused outrage are now met with a shrug."

 Jeremy Clarkson in the Sunday Times [£]: "I’m constantly being hauled over the coals in the Daily Mail and the Daily Star and the Mirror for all sorts of things. Calling Gordon Brown a one-eyed Scottish idiot. Saying public sector workers should be executed. Sparking fury with fox enthusiasts. I’m portrayed as an evil, racist, homophobic misogynist who goes through life stabbing baby badgers for fun. And I’ve worked out that it makes no difference. Taxi drivers still pick me up. People still watch my television shows. My books aren’t remaindered for weeks; sometimes months. That’s because the endless criticism is just a background hum. The BBC should accept this. It should make decisions on what it thinks to be right, not on how that decision will be reviewed in the next day’s papers."

Grey Cardigan responds to a PR on TheSpinAlley: “Dear Kacey-Lee. Thank you for your interest in the well-being of myself and my family. Unfortunately I couldn’t get out in the sun to enjoy myself because I am twice-divorced and therefore don’t have enough money to even pay for a Mr Whippy. As for a barbecue, a Lidl sausage toasted over a blow-lamp is about my limit. My children won’t talk to me, my latest ex-wife is shagging an investment banker while still shafting me for every penny she can get, and I can’t go out in the sun because I have red hair and turn bright crimson if I even walk past a microwave oven. Anyway, it was rainy and foggy up here, somewhere north of Kensington, so there was no sun anyway. Oh, and my dog died, which somewhat took the gloss off the weekend…”

David Simon in The Observer: "You already have too much prior restraint of the British press. I couldn't operate under your press law, couldn't do good journalism consistently. Your ability to criticise people in public or reveal secrets that are in the public's interest are much more constrained than ours. And I find that to be unworkable in terms of democracy."

The Times [£]: "Local authorities are threatening to withdraw advertising from newspapers that publish stories they do not like, according to a survey that examined the impact of the Leveson inquiry on the local press. Nearly half of all local newspaper editors believe that the inquiry into press standards has negatively affected their titles’ relationship with readers. More than a quarter (27 per cent) had received a threat from a public body to suspend advertising as a result of journalistic activity, such as a story being published, a query being made or a reporter attending a meeting."

Brian Cathcart, the executive director of Hacked Off, in a letter to regional newspaper editors, as reported by HoldtheFrontPage: “You may be concerned that any changes to the press regulation system could make your job harder and put extra burdens on regional and local papers. That’s what the Newspaper Society has been warning. I am writing to say that what the Newspaper Society has been telling you is not correct. The Royal Charter approved by all parties in Parliament in March is good for working journalists, good for the regional and local press – and good for the public."

Private Eye on coverage of Alex Ferguson's retirement: "Perhaps the most spectacular example of Stockholm syndrome was displayed by the BBC. Having been sent to Coventry by Ferguson for a full seven years after daring to expose his son Jason's activities as a football agent - a ban which ended only in 2011 -  the corporation found the perfect pundit to  pay tribute to Sir Alex on Radio Five Live. Step-up long-standing Fergie friend and fellow Labour stalwart Alastair Campbell, the man whose rabid desire to 'fuck Gilligan' over the BBC's WMD story in 2003 brought the corporation  as close to extinction  as it has ever been."

Piers Morgan ‏@piersmorgan on Twitter: "'I've never held a grudge against the media, not my style' - Sir Alex Ferguson, who refused to speak to BBC for 5yrs."

BBC Sport Interactive editor  Stuart Rowson ‏@StuartRowson on Twitter: "Led by the #MUFC and Fergie coverage, last week was the biggest ever outside of the Olympics for @bbcsport - 17.3m unique UK browsers."

SubScribe by Gameoldgirl on Press Gazette: "The Ferguson retirement killed almost as many trees as the Iron Lady's death. Every daily newspaper, bar the Express, lost touch with reality in a race to be the most obsequious...This is daft. The Knight of the Hairdryer is a football manager. He is retiring, he has not died - and even if he had, this would still be over the top." 


[£] = paywall

New survey on legal claims made against media

A new survey hoping to establish solid data on the nature and quantity of legal claims made against the media in the UK, is being conducted by Judith Townend, who runs the Meeja Law blog.

She says: "There is very little solid data about the nature and quantity of legal claims made against the media, including small bloggers. Because the majority of libel claims, for example, are believed to be resolved out of court, there is no complete record of disputes. In short, little is known about bloggers’ and journalists’ actual legal experiences and opinions."

The questionnaire can be found here:

• https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/medialawsurvey

It is part of Judith Townend’s doctoral project at the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism (CLJJ), City University London. The research project, which has been given ethical approval by the CLJJ, explores how journalists and online writers are affected by libel and privacy law, as well as other social and legal factors. It will draw attention to the issues faced by online writers and journalists, and help inform the development of resources in this area.

• The questionnaire is open to all types of journalists and online writers who expect their readership to be predominantly based in England and/or Wales.
• It should take between 10 and 30 minutes to complete, depending on your experiences and views. Some questions require an answer so you can be taken to the next relevant question.
• All data will be collected anonymously with no identification of organisations or individuals.

Quotes of the Week: From a fond farewell for Ferguson to Burchill on the joy of punctuation

Mark Ogden in the Telegraph on Alex Ferguson and the press: "Many reporters have been banned, myself included, for a vast number of random reasons. They have been banned for getting stories wrong and getting them right. Others have been exiled for writing books about Ferguson or making oblique references that have irked him deep within their articles. Yet Ferguson’s departure will be mourned by those who are employed to report on United, regardless of the bans, the hairdryers and the flying voice recorders. One sentence from Ferguson can carry more weight than a thousand words from his managerial counterparts – which can be a negative as well as positive quality – but being witness to the Ferguson years at United has been a rare privilege." 

Greg Dyke in the Sunday Times [£] on the BBC row with the Government over the 'sexed up' dossier: "The basic allegations were that they sexed up the dossier — I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. Our story was fundamentally right. It was not completely right, but then journalism is not an exact science. What was clear was: did they sex up the dossier? Yes. Did they know they were sexing it up? Yes. About the only person who I’ve ever come across who doesn’t believe that is Alastair Campbell.” 

Peter Preston in The Observer: "Northern newsrooms – like Midlands correspondents and the rest – have all but vanished. Local news agencies feeding the nationals are similarly diminished. London, reaching for its newspaper or clicking online each morning, gets no consistent sense of what non-metropolitan life is like."

Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times [£]: "Bullying is another word that has long since lost its original meaning. It no longer refers to someone having his head put down the lavatory; it now means to compromise someone’s opinion of themselves by suggesting that they might have got something wrong."

The Guardian in a leader: "One of the final arbiters of press regulation in this country is likely to be a former military intelligence officer who once successfully sued a British media organisation for reporting that he was part of an SAS operation training allies of the dictator Pol Pot in Cambodia. The libel trial was halted after the then defence secretary granted authority for gagging orders – public interest immunity certificates – preventing evidence about the security services from being disclosed to the court. Too far fetched, even in the feverish world of post-Leveson wranglings? Alas not. Under any proposal for a press royal charter, the ultimate fate of media regulation would be the subject of private conversations between the head of the privy council (Nick Clegg) and the aforesaid individual –  Sir Christopher Geidt, private secretary to the Queen (and, inevitably, himself a member of the privy council)."

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, quoted in the Daily Mail: "Police briefing against arrested individuals to pressure or punish is clearly abusive but it’s equally chilling for officers to refuse to confirm names of those detained or charged." 

Sun Royal editor Duncan Larcombe in a statement after being charged with bribery offences: "I hope to demonstrate that I am a responsible journalist who reported in the public interest.  As a royal reporter I worked harder than any other at the Palace putting in place and ensuring the application of a series of criteria that had to be satisfied before a story would appear in my paper. For the past year I have had to remain silent but my aim now is to fight these allegations with every breath in my body in the hope that justice and common sense will prevail."

Grey Cardigan on TheSpinAlley: "I had expected great things of the re-designed websites of Local World’s regional newspapers. Surely a company so wedded to digital expansion would produce something useful and accessible, sexy and sophisticated. So I was more than a little disappointed when I clicked on one of the re-launched sites to find something that looked like it had been put together by a 14-year-old kid in his bedroom… in 1996. Huge tabloid fonts smashing you in the face, negligible help with navigation, poor or non-existent labelling – they’re a real mess and about as sexy as an unflushed toilet." 

Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail on her days as a Guardian journalist: "Increasingly, I saw how journalists on highbrow papers write primarily for other journalists or to impress politicians or other members of the great and the good. They don’t actually like ordinary people — especially the lower middle class, the strivers who believed in self-discipline and personal responsibility.  They dismiss them as narrow-minded, parochial and prejudiced (unlike themselves, of course)."

Michael Wolff on USA Today: "Murdoch survives. And his fortune has only increased. But the legacy he has most wanted, a permanent patrimony for his papers, and the conveyance of his company from his leadership to his children's, is still a struggle that, at 82, he will not win."

Julie Burchill on her husband Daniel Raven in the Sunday Times Magazine [£]: "Dan is the only person who’s more obsessed with punctuation than I am. It’s the secret of a good marriage, sex and punctuation.” 

[£] = paywall

Media Quotes of the Week: Wanted a Fleet Street champion, fear at the BBC and the most significant invention for journalism since the telephone

Ian Burrell in the Independent: "Since the Leveson inquiry was announced, the press has lacked a credible figurehead who can connect with the public in a similar way to Hugh Grant of the media-reform group Hacked Off. Fleet Street lacks a champion."

Respect at Work Review on the BBC: “Throughout our conversations we heard a strong undercurrent of fear; fear of speaking out, fear of reprisal, fear of losing your job, being made redundant, fear of becoming a victim, fear of getting a reputation as a troublemaker and not getting promoted if an employee, or further work if a  freelancer, supplier or contractor."

Torin Douglas, the BBC's media correspondent who leaves the Corporation this month after 24 years, in a Press Gazette interview: “The fact is, morale within the BBC is not good – particularly with the strikes and everything. A lot of BBC staff are unhappy about the pay of their managers, the way the BBC is managed and so on.”

Downing Street source quoted by the Independent: “The Royal Charter put forward by the three parties and agreed after 22 weeks of consultation with the newspaper industry is the one we think should go forward.”

A statement from Stuart Hall's solicitor, when he was first charged in December, as reported by the Daily Mail: 'Stuart Hall is innocent of these charges. He is unable to comment further at this stage. It is a matter of concern that in the week following publication of the Leveson Report there appears to have been systematic, measured leaks to the media which have given a misleading impression of what this case is about."

Joel Simon, executive director of New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, responds to Hacked Off's Brian Cathcart: "Of course, it is natural that Cathcart would come to a different conclusion, since he has a very different role. His brief is to advocate on behalf of the victims of media abuses, who unquestionably deserve our support and sympathy. Our role is to defend the basic principles of press freedom and the rights of journalists to report the news. I have no doubt that Cathcart believes a Royal Charter supported by statute is the best solution for Britain. But it is not the best solution for journalists around the world, and that is why we oppose it." 

Oxford Mail group editor Simon O'Neil, quoted by the Newspaper Society on the Government's draft Royal Charter on press regulation: "I am disappointed, but not surprised, that despite fine words from MPs of all parties, including the three leaders, the impact this would have on the regional press has been completely ignored, or at best viewed as collateral damage. They clearly believed that if they patted us on the head we’d just go away. They were wrong."

The Daily Telegraph after being banned by Newcastle United for claiming there was a 'split' in the dressing room: "We regret the club's decision to ban the Telegraph from attending matches and press conferences, but will not allow it to prevent us providing the most incisive, trustworthy Newcastle coverage, rather than pandering to what the club want you to read."

Southern Daily Echo editor Ian Murray after revelations in the paper (above) forced the leader of Southampton City Council to quit, as reported by HoldTheFrontPage: “It was shocking in the end that the council’s legal department attempted to silence us with threats before we published our investigations based on their own report. This was a clear matter of public interest. If we had not lifted the lid on this issue then no one else would have revealed what was going on. As a lesson in why a free and vibrant local press is needed to scrutinise local democracy I can think of no better example.”

Martin Kettle in the Guardian: "In the course of the post-Leveson debate, a great principle – the free press – has been shamelessly hijacked by vested interests. Freedom has been elided with press self-interest. Press opposition to reform has been brash, heavy-handed and single-minded. Even the extraordinary all-party agreement in March to put significant parts of Leveson under the umbrella of a royal charter caused only momentary hesitation. In the end, not even the fact that no single MP voted against the agreement counted for anything. The press ignored parliament's verdict."

Steve Hewlett in the Observer: "With the moonlight flit to Wapping, Murdoch moved to take on the print unions who had supported his purchase of the Sun. And difficult and brutal as it was, there is now a consensus, more or less, that change had to happen and that, by acting in a way no other press owner dared to do, Murdoch has extended the commercial life of Britain's press by at least 20 years."

Janet Street Porter in the Mail on Rachel Johnson: "Pushy Rachel has talked up editing a minor magazine (The Lady) into a major journalistic achievement - at least I've edited a national newspaper." 

Roy Greenslade on his MediaGuardian blog: "Journalism is too important to our democracy to be permitted to wither on the vine because rapacious bankers are squeezing companies that put profit before public service."

Emily Bell, speaking at the International Journalism Festival: "Twitter is the most significant invention for journalism since the telephone".

Industry Royal Charter submitted to Privy Council

The newspaper and magazine industry’s proposed Royal Charter for self regulation of the press has been formally submitted to the Privy Council Office.

The Charter submitted by the four newspaper and magazine trade associations - The Newspaper Society representing regional and local newspapers, Newspaper Publishers Association representing national newspapers, Professional Publishers Association representing magazines and the Scottish Newspaper Society - was published by the industry on April 25th.

Since then there has been one small amendment to include in the recognition criteria the provision by the new independent regulator of a whistle-blowers’ hotline.

It is understood that the next meeting of the Privy Council is due to take place on May 15th.

Via the Newspaper Society

Royal Charter: What the regional editors say

Local newspaper seller in Birmingham (Pic: Jon Slattery)

A trio of regional press editors have voiced their support for the new draft Royal Charter on press self-regulation published yesterday by the industry.

Interestingly, all three refer in a press release from the Newspaper Society to the new proposal as the "Independent Royal Charter."

Simon O’Neill, group editor of the Oxford Mail which covers David Cameron’s Witney constituency, said: “I support radical changes to the way Britain’s press is regulated, as I want no part of an industry that hacks phones and convicts innocent people on the front pages. But I will not accept a system that has been steamrollered through by self-interested politicians and pressure groups in the dead of night.

“The implications for press freedom in this country with politicians astride the regulation process hardly bear thinking about. Furthermore, I am disappointed, but not surprised, that despite fine words from MPs of all parties, including the three leaders, the impact this would have on the regional press has been completely ignored, or at best viewed as collateral damage. They clearly believed that if they patted us on the head we’d just go away. They were wrong.

“I want firm, fair and credible press regulation that also preserves freedom of the press in this country for another 300 years or more. That is why I support the Independent Royal Charter. It offers a sensible and effective solution to the current stalemate.” 

Alastair Machray, Liverpool Echo editor and Trinity Mirror Merseyside, Cheshire and Wales editor-in-chief, said: “For me this the Independent Royal Charter is an excellent piece of work for three reasons: firstly it breaks what looked like deadlock; secondly it recognises that the regional newspaper industry is in no position to carry the huge financial risks inherent in the cross-party Royal Charter; and finally, crucially because it protects a freedom of the press that has served us brilliantly for 300 years.”

Nigel Pickover, Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News editor-in-chief, said: “We believe the proposed system confronts the concerns of many press publishers and editors and is a boost to the process of implementing a tough new system of independent self regulation. It is an Independent Royal Charter which will guarantee Britain remains the home of free speech. It will deliver what Lord Leveson called for.

"Politicians must accept this compromise solution or they will be culpable in threatening not least a regional press which millions of people rely on for news that is clear, truthful and unhindered by the vested interests.” 

• Backers of the draft Royal Charter are said to be very pleased with the reaction it has received, including what they see as "encouragement" from the FT, Guardian and Independent  - the three national newspapers that have not yet formally signed-up to it.  

Quotes of the Week: From make that two Royal Charters to Santorini and the Loveson Inquiry

The Newspaper Society on the industry's draft Royal Charter on press regulation: "It is a workable, practical way swiftly to deliver the Leveson recommendations, which the industry accepts, without any form of state-sponsored regulation that would endanger freedom of speech. It has widespread backing across the industry. It will deliver a system of regulation which will provide real protection for the public."

Hacked Off responds: "This desperate move by editors and proprietors – rejecting the Royal Charter agreed last month by all parties in Parliament and due to be approved by the Queen in days – is only the latest proof that most of the industry has learned no lessons from the Leveson experience. They are not sorry for the abuses exposed at the inquiry, or for the further abuses exposed almost weekly since, and they do not accept the need for real change."

The Guardian in a leader: "Like the Schleswig-Holstein question, the few people who still understand the arguments about the post-Leveson royal charter are dead, mad or past caring." 

Fiona Richmond in the Telegraph: “I was also so upset with Steve Coogan...During the lunch I asked, given that he had been part of the Leveson Inquiry and strongly complained about invasion of privacy, why he thought it was acceptable putting me in scenes that never happened: wasn’t it an invasion of my privacy? I never, for example, took part in orgies, or a threesome. But it didn’t seem to matter to him in the slightest." 

The Daily Mail in a leader: "The arrest of three civilian police workers for revealing that their elected commissioner was lavishing taxpayers' money on unwarranted trips in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes is a truly chilling story of how freedom of expression is being suppressed in this country...It's the kind of behaviour we normally associate with tyrants, but since the Leveson inquiry effectively criminalised unauthorised contacts between journalists and public officials, the police seem to think that such harassment is acceptable. The implications for democracy, our open society and the public's right to know could not be more grave."

UKIP leader Nigel Farage interviewed in the West Sussex Gazette: " I am mortified that in a smoke filled room in Westminster at half past two in the morning the Lib Dem and Labour agenda was agreed to by David Cameron and we’re heading towards state regulation of the press, and what we know with all forms of state regulation is that it becomes costly bureaucratic and effectively puts out of the game many of the smaller and medium sized players." 

The Guardian in a leader: "The overall situation relating to press freedom is by no means uniformly bleak. The country's appalling defamation laws, which led to London being treated as the libel capital of the world, have finally and historically been reformed – the work of a determined group of lawyers, peers, MPs and human rights organisations. Speech in Britain should be notably freer as a result. But at the same time there are justifiable concerns about attempts to criminalise some forms of unauthorised disclosure or whistleblowing. And we share the anxieties many media organisations have about the prospect of unreportable arrests." 

Boston Globe photographer John Tlumacki quoted in Time about covering the Boston Marathon bombings: "I was so shook up about it — I was speechless when I was there [on scene]. My eyes were swelling up behind my camera. We use a camera as a defense but I was shaken when I got back, just scanning the pictures. The other sad part was that I took my shoes off because they were covered in blood from walking on the sidewalk taking pictures."

IPCC deputy chair Deborah Glass, quoted by the Guardian: "We will never know what would have happened had Surrey police carried out an investigation into the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone in 2002. Phone hacking was a crime and this should have been acted upon, if not in 2002, then later, once the News of the World's widespread use of phone hacking became a matter of public knowledge and concern. We have not been able to uncover any evidence, in documentation or witness statements, of why and by whom that decision was made: former senior officers, in particular, appear to have been afflicted by a form of collective amnesia in relation to the events of 2002."

Lawyers Harbottle and Lewis in emails sent to the Mail on Sunday about their client Rolf Harris: "There is no public interest in publishing such an article as is entirely self-evident following publication of the Leveson report."

Henry Winter on Barcelona and Real Madrid being thrashed in the first legs of the Champions League semi-finals, in the Telegraph: "Nobody expected the Spanish inhibition." 

Hacked Associated Press Twitter account:  @AP The Associated Press: "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured."

Santorini

The Mail in a leader on the affair of Leveson lawyers David Sherborne and Carine Patry Hoskins: "When the affair began is unclear. They say it didn't start until after Leveson reported last November, but admit they went on holiday to the romantic Greek island of Santorini last August. They claim - with a straight face - their relationship was then still platonic. But even if there was no pillow talk, it beggars belief they wouldn't have discussed Leveson over the odd glass of Retsina."

Rowan Pelling in the Telegraph: "The self-restraint of Gandhi, who slept alongside naked virgins to test his commitment to celibacy, is as nothing compared to the iron willpower of David Sherborne and Carine Patry Hoskins."

Rupert Murdoch ‏@rupertmurdoch on Twitter: "Ho! Ho! Leverson becomes Loverson! Can affirm Santorini very romantic."

Lord Justice Leveson on Carine Patry Hoskins, quoted in the Telegraph: "Save for some proof reading in the final few days before publication, she did not see and was not involved in any discussions about the other sections of the report or, indeed, in any of my eventual recommendations. There was simply no room for a 'breach of confidence or other conspiracy' as a result of personal relations between her and Mr Sherborne.”