Thursday 15 October 2015

Media Quotes of the Week: Don't quote me I'm from the FoI Commission to Kloop challenges British journalists to prove they're not liars



Rajeev Sval in the Guardian: "The government-appointed body reviewing the Freedom of Information Act has held its first official briefing – but journalists were asked not to disclose who was there or attribute what they said."


Campaign for Freedom of Information director Maurice Frankel on the possible introduction of charges for FoI requests: “It would make the FoI Act inaccessible for individual requesters and small and medium organisations as well as for freelance journalists.”


The Guardian in a leader: "If FoI had one aim, it was meant to be forcing political decision-making out into the open. But Mr [Jack] Straw this year let slip to undercover reporters that he thought some political work was best done “under the radar”. What an irony it would be if Britain’s transparency legislation ended up being neutered without detection."


The Sun in a leader [£]: "The clue is in the Act's name. This information should be freely available."


Charles Moore in the Telegraph: "Since we are in the mood for government inquiries and police investigations, I suggest that one or two more get started. Let’s look at possible collusion between MPs such as Mr Watson, police officers, the media and child abuse lawyers and campaigners to put pressure on vulnerable 'survivors' to make lurid, unsubstantiated claims which they could then repeat."


Nick Cohen in the Observer on Labour deputy leader Tom Watson: "When he hounded a dying man to his grave, Watson sank lower than the News of the World reporters he and Hacked Off once fought. However invasive and prurient their scoops, they were at least true. Unless convincing witnesses come forward, you will not be able to say the same about Watson’s 'exposé'."


NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet on regional press publishers, speaking to the Lords Communications Committee"The titans, who run these groups, either here or from the United States, are to blame for the failure of their own business models. They enjoyed lavish profits for many years and didn't re-invest in journalism. They have cut and cut costs to maintain high profit levels and have not cared they do not have enough reporters to send to council meetings or cover such vital areas such as health and education and matters of importance to local communities. Now they see the BBC is ripe for the picking and have gone hell for leather to secure money from the corporation."


BBC Director-general Tony Hall on Sue Lloyd-Roberts, who died this week: "She went to dangerous places to give a voice to people who otherwise would not be heard. She was quite simply a remarkable woman who got remarkable stories. She will be deeply missed."


NUJ organiser Chris Morley on Newsquest's annual pre-tax profit of £58.65m: "This is still a very profitable company whose employees are on their knees with year after endless year without a pay rise. This has to stop in 2016 and staff must share in the one-sided gain the company is reaping from massive productivity increases coming through the grim conveyor belt of job losses."


Isabel Oakeshott on that pig story in Call Me Dave, speaking at the Cheltenham Festival, reported in The Times [£]: “Would I have got that story into The Sunday Times? Well, I reckon it probably could have been a diary story, expressed much more euphemistically.”
Poynter"For the second year in a row, newspaper reporters have found themselves among uncomfortable company on CareerCast’s annual list of endangered jobs: Right next to mail carriers, meter readers, farmers and other professions that have been disrupted by technology."


New Liverpool F.C. manager Jurgen Kloop to journalists at his first press conference: "All the people told me so much about British press, it's up to you to show me they are all liars."

[£]=paywall

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