Media Quotes of the Week: Outrage as police seize Plebgate journalist's phone records, Guardian snubs IPSO, hacked celeb nude pics are 'most read'

Press Gazette:"Journalists’ telephone records were seized in order to track down the whistleblowers who revealed former Government chief whip Andrew Mitchell’s altercation with officers outside 10 Downing Street."

Paul Lewis ‏@PaulLewis on Twitter: "This police surveillance of a journalist isn't just disturbing - it is dangerous. Who else have they been monitoring?"

Jack of Kent ‏@JackofKent on Twitter: "Because of #DRIP Act, Met can now get journalists' email records (gmail, etc) as easily as they got journalist's phone record in #Plebgate....A government which can identify sources of journalists holding it to account “regulates” the media more than anything proposed by Leveson."

lisa o'carroll ‏@lisaocarroll on Twitter: "EVERY journalist should be concerned about this. Scary thing is you would not know if Met got your records already."

Michael Crick ‏@MichaelLCrick on Twitter: "Outrageous that Met Plebgate detectives got hold of Tom Newton Dunn & Sun's phone records without a judge's say-so."

NUJ general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet in a statement: "Instances like this amount to the outrageous criminalisation of sources who have taken the decision that information they are in receipt of deserves to come to the attention of the public. If whistleblowers believe that material they pass to journalists can be accessed in this way – without even the journalists and newspaper knowing about it - they will understandably think twice about making that call."

Committee to Protect Journalists executive director Joel Simon: "Journalists know that covering war is inherently dangerous and that they could get killed in crossfire. But being butchered in front of camera simply for being a reporter is pure barbarism. We condemn in the strongest terms possible the murder of journalist Steven Sotloff. He, like James Foley, went to Syria to tell a story. They were civilians, not representatives of any government. Their murders are war crimes and those who committed them must be brought to justice swiftly."

lyse doucet ‏@bbclysedoucet  on Twitter: "Steven Sotloff - brave reporter who believed there r stories worth taking risks for...could never have imagined horrible risk like this RIP."

The Guardian in a leader: "The Guardian, in common with the majority of what used by be called daily national broadsheet papers in the UK, is not signing up to Ipso at this stage; nor are several magazines or major new media players. This paper will wait to see whether Sir Alan [Moses] succeeds in reforming some of the governance issues that still cause anxiety. In the meantime, we will reinforce our own system of complaints and mediation."

Variety: "George Clooney has come on to direct “Hack Attack” for Sony Pictures, delving into the hot-button topic of celebrity privacy scandals. The pic will be an adaptation of journalist Nick Davies’ account of the British phone hacking scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch’s news empire."

alan rusbridger ‏@arusbridger on Twitter: "So that's 3 films (Spielberg, Stone, Clooney) & 2 W End plays (Privacy & Gt Britain) out of Guardian journalism. Dramatic."

BBC director general Lord Hall to the Home Affairs Select Committee: "Had the chief constable come to a news editor, head of newsgathering, James Harding, director of news or myself and said to us, 'If you run this story you will hamper this investigation, it would be damaging to this investigation,' we would not have run the story. I want you to be absolutely clear about that. We would not have run the story."

The Daily Telegraph: "Confidential conversations about the raid on Sir Cliff Richard's home between the BBC and police could be made public, under a proposal being made by the corporation. James Harding, director of news and current affairs at the BBC, has written to South Yorkshire Police asking for permission to release emails, text messages and 'off-the-record conversations' between the two organisations."

Theatre critic Charles Spencer on leaving the Daily Telegraph after 25 years: “I have loved my job, but critics shouldn’t go on too long. I feel I’ve had my say and it’s time to stop and put my feet up.”

The Daily Telegraph in a leader on Charles Spencer's retirement: "There are many ingredients to great criticism, but above all it is trustworthiness. Our readers, for a quarter of a century, have known that if Charles says a play is worth the money, it probably is; he has been a truthful voice in a world sometimes too full of artifice. That honesty has not always won him friends (Dame Judi Dench once described him as an 'absolute s---' after a cutting review) but it has won him admirers, and most importantly, the trust of the public. He has a turn of phrase, too: his description of Nicole Kidman as 'pure theatrical Viagra' is famous. But most of all, he has tended to be right. Now he takes a deserved curtain call, and a standing ovation." 

The Media Blog ‏@TheMediaTweets on Twitter: "The Telegraph and Express sports desks have played their 'Costa Bravo' cards very early....Presumably when he doesn't score it will be 'Costa Blank-a' and if he's out with a chest infection 'Costa Coughy'."

NEW YORK, September 4, 2014: "Time Inc. today announced it is rebranding its wholly-owned UK publishing arm IPC Media to Time Inc. UK."

Colin Freeman, chief foreign correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph on freelances trying to cover conflicts with little formal training in journalism:
"Not everyone wants to spend years learning the news trade the way I did, starting on a local paper and writing about parish council reports and garden fetes. What relevance, they ask, does that have to covering wars? The answer, as it happens, is quite a lot. For one thing, it trains your news sense: if you can get make a write-up of the Cleethorpes All-Breeds Dog Show sound interesting, you won't have too many problems finding off-track stories on quiet days in Syria, when noone back in London wants yet another story of bloodshed on the front line. And for another, all news, be it here or in war zones, is about ordinary people and what makes them tick. If you don't find human life that interesting in Cleethorpes, you may not be that sharp a chronicler of it elsewhere."

Grey Cardigan on TheSpinAlley on the continuing fall in print sales for local press: "The one hope on the horizon is that with 22 daily titles now selling fewer than 15,000 copies a day – including those in proper provincial towns like Carlisle, Wigan, Worcester, Swindon, Bolton, Colchester, Ipswich, Oxford, Brighton and Blackpool – the big boys will start shedding these ‘failing’ assets and sell them back to the communities in which they were founded."

Nick Cohen on Standpoint on the regulation on broadcasting to be impartial: "It does not strike me as oppressive that there should be a small corner in the marketplace of ideas where people can go — if they wish — for impartial and accurate journalism. I do not see why we should close it down just because Jon Snow wants to wave his willy at anyone who will look."

Janice Turner in The Times [£] on embattled police and crime commissioner Shaun Wright [£]: "When Andrew Norfolk, of The Times, first questioned him, Mr Wright’s reply was: 'Why are you picking on Rotherham?' A complacent Labour council with an unassailable majority had no reason to grub for the votes of its more marginal citizens."

Sarfraz Manzoor in The Times [£]: "Among other things, Rotherham and Trojan horse and the rise of Islamic State has illustrated the dangers in having an elite that is so white and middle-class. It is these white middle-class commentators who have been busy opining on the British Pakistani community. Their attitude to British Pakistanis is almost exactly the same as that of the British Pakistanis in places like Luton and Birmingham towards white people: they don’t know any, but that doesn’t stop them holding all sorts of crazy views. It’s just another column for them, but for some of us it is so much more."

Sunday Telegraph on new BBC Trust chair

@EverydaySexism ton Twitter: "This wouldn't have been the headline if it was a man! Shame on the telegraph."

Dan Sabbagh ‏@dansabbagh on Twitter: "Rona fairhead very accomplished FD at Pearson, but also the woman who nearly sold the FT. Hope she is more careful with the beeb."

Kevin Maguire ‏@Kevin_Maguire on Twitter: "Most viewed story on Mirror, Telegraph, BBC & Guardian, yes GUARDIAN, is the leak of celeb nude photos #pervalert"

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