Quotes of the week: Why Bell puts Osborne in bondage gear to papers go nuts about a squirrel

Cartoonist Steve Bell in a Guardian video on his portrayal of George Osborne: "Why is George in bondage gear? Well, I was having a bit of a problem drawing George. The whole point about George's stance is its about restraint, restraint, restraint, cuts, cuts, whips, whips,  straps, straps, chains, chains... "

Chris Huhne's partner Carina Trimingham, interviewed in the Independent, on the Daily Mail: "In their sights, they have a Liberal Democrat cabinet minister, which they really don't like, and a former lesbian. Good God, all their Christmases have come at once."

Hacked Off's Brian Cathcart in the Guardian: "What is happening is a subversion of Leveson and an insult to the idea of an open society. [The government] can't be trusted, and the more they meddle privately with Leveson's recommendations, the more they are certain to contaminate them. Day by day, they are burning up public trust."

Index on Censorship's Kirsty Hughes in a letter to the Guardian:  "As Index on Censorship has pointed out since the beginning of the Leveson process, any statute, however "light-touch", will inevitably give politicians the ability to meddle with a free press. And the 24 paragraphs that Leveson put forward to describe his desired statutory underpinning anyway belie the idea that this is light-touch at all. The only way to avoid this meddling is to refrain from creating any law specifically drafted for the press."

Toby Young on his Telegraph blog: "The problem is, the Orwell Prize is administered by the Media Standards Trust, the same body that launched the Hacked Off Campaign. It seems pretty clear to me that the present aims of Hacked Off – namely, to see all of Leveson’s recommendations implemented in full, including the statutory underpinning of a new, independent press regulator – would not have found sympathy with Orwell. Indeed, I don’t see how the Media Standards Trust can, in good conscience, support Hacked Off and continue to invoke Orwell’s good name."

Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn at Southwark Crown Court, as reported by Press Gazette: "I felt very strongly that we shouldn't be doing hacking. Our function was to prevent terrorist attacks and I was particularly worried that the behaviour of my colleagues was such that they thought it was a bit of a jolly. They thought it was all going to be a bit of fun, getting to travel, getting to see famous people. I felt sufficiently strongly we should not be diverting resources which are to do with saving people's lives. It made me really angry."

Telegraph editor  Tony Gallagher ‏@gallaghereditor on Twitter: "Shouldn't journalists feel queasy about the reporter who took a ring in and then gave evidence against the hacking DCI?"

Alex Jones to Piers Morgan on CNN: "Why did you get fired from the Daily Mirror for putting out fake stories? You're a hatchet man of the New World Order. You're a hatchet man! And I'm going to say this here, you think you're a tough guy? Have me back with a boxing ring and I'll wear red, white, and blue, and you'll wear your Jolly Roger."

Andrew Sullivan on his blog The Dish going independent and subscriber based: "Basically, we've gotten a third of a million dollars in 24 hours, with close to 12,000 paid subscribers (at last count). On average, readers paid almost $8 more than we asked for. To say we're thrilled would obscure the depth of our gratitude and relief."

Editor Dominic Ponsford on his blog on why Press Gazette is dropping print and going digital only: "While the production of a quarterly journal made great sense journalistically, the commercial case did not pan out as well as we had hoped. And with the Press Gazette editorial team now producing a weekly digital magazine, daily newsletter, rolling news website and iPhone/tablet app - we now plan to focus editorial resources on developing these growing outlets."

David Rowell ‏@newsviewer on Twitter on the Press Gazette move: "Well, well. If journalists won't buy print who will?"

fleetstreetfox ‏@fleetstreetfox on Twitter: "And every paper has the story of a squirrel being rescued from a pond in Watford. Who said Leveson would muzzle the Press?"