Thursday 23 January 2020

Media Quotes of the Week: From ex-Guardian and Sun editors slam press over Harry and Meghan coverage to cameras in Crown Courts at last



Alan Rusbridger in the Observer: "All three of the major newspaper groups most obsessed with Harry and Meghan are themselves being sued by the couple for assorted breaches of privacy and copyright. There is, to any reasonable eyes, a glaring conflict of interest that, for the most part, goes undeclared."
  • David Yelland on Twitter: "Serious issues raised in this piece by @arusbridger; it is the absence of kindness, honesty and compassion, as I've said many times, which appalls."

Rebecca Long-Bailey on Twitter: 'The toxic combination of sexism and racism that runs rife through the right-wing press must be stopped. As leader of the Labour Party, I will do everything I can to fight it.'


Michael Moore in The Times [£]: "The BBC will announce significant cuts to its news operation as painful reforms are pushed through before the next director-general is appointed. Popular news programmes, which could include BBC Two’s Victoria Derbyshire and Radio 4’s World At One, are likely to bear the brunt in a push for more centralised commissioning. Producers and reporters will increasingly be expected to produce packages that can be reworked for multiple BBC news outlets, across TV, radio and online. Resources will be focused on digital news, a controversial move given complaints from commercial publishers that its ever-expanding website undermines their business models."
  • Victoria Derbyshire on Twitter: "Absolutely devastated at the plan to end our programme (which I first learned about in yesterday’s Times). I’m unbelievably proud of what our team and our show have achieved in under 5 years....breaking tonnes of original stories (which we were asked to do); attracting a working class, young, diverse audience that BBC radio & TV news progs just don’t reach (which we were asked to do); & smashing the digital figures (which we were asked to do) ... "

Robert Peston on Twitter: "Decision on who replaces Lord Hall as bbc DG is probably as important as who becomes next Labour leader. Because given size of @BorisJohnson’s majority, the task of holding the government to account will probably fall more on media than on parliamentary opposition."


Yorkshire Post editor James Mitchinson on Twitter: "Dear university (in Yorkshire) contemplating dropping shorthand from your syllabus as students ‘don’t like it’ nor feel it’s ‘relevant’. Here’s a thing: it is, and those who show the minerals to pass it are the ones that get jobs. End of."
  • Ex-Guardian investigations editor David Leigh on Twitter: "I managed a 45-year journalist career without having shorthand. Students, don't listen to this dinosaur. Learn Chinese or something."


The Guardian reports: "A man has been found guilty of aggravated assault against the Guardian columnist Owen Jones because of hostility to his leftwing political views and homophobia, following a two-day trial at Snaresbrook crown court. Anne Studd QC, the presiding judge, concluded at the end of the hearing that Jones was the victim of a “wholly unprovoked assault” outside a central London pub last August because of “his LGBT and his leftwing beliefs."


The Telegraph in a statement on pulling out of the Audit Bureau of Circulations monthly audit: "The ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) results published, today, January 16th, are the final set of ABC results Telegraph Media Group will take part in. Whilst they do show that the Telegraph remains the highest selling quality newspaper, by circa 8,000 copies a day, the ABC metric is not the key metric behind our subscription strategy and not how we measure our success. We will be transparent with our core subscriber numbers which are omni-channel and we will communicate these numbers each month. We will share both volumes and average revenue per subscription."


Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors, in a statement welcoming news that television cameras are to be allowed into some Crown Courts across England and Wales: “The cause of open justice can only be served by this development which will open up the court proceedings to a public that is now used to receiving news and information in this video age. The proposals, while retaining the dignity of the courts, will be a huge step forward in ensuring transparency in the justice system, enabling the media to allow the public better access to judicial proceedings which in turn can only assure communities that justice is being seen to be carried out correctly."
  • John Battle, head of cmpliance at ITN, added: “This is a landmark moment and an important day for open justice and transparency of our legal system. For the first time the public will see images of proceedings in the Crown Court on television news. This change will help a wider audience to see and understand the criminal justice process for themselves."
 [£]=paywall

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