Straw: 'I am on the side of papers not councils'

Justice Secretary Jack Straw has come down on the side of the local press in its battle against competition from council-owned newspapers.
Straw, addressing regional press political editors at a Newspaper Conference lunch on Tuesday, spoke of the local press being "of fundamental importance to the workings of our democracy". Referring to the spat between the local paper in Hammersmith and the council-run H&F News he said:"I am on the side of the papers and not the councils."
Source: Newspaper Society