Quotes of the Week: From contrasting pictures of Boris Johnson tell a different story to who are the biggest complainers about gossip columns?

Times and Sunday Times news picture editor Sam Stewart on Twitter: "The difference in coverage we get when @StefanRousseau (a press pool photographer) is allowed to cover the press briefings. I'll let you guess which is his and which is a government handout picture."

Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors, in a statement on the actions of Extinction Rebellion in preventing the distribution of newspapers by blockading printing plants: "The irony of protesters who wish to have their voices heard and their message listened to attempting to silence others by preventing the distribution of newspapers would be laughable if it was not so serious. You have to wonder whether those planning and taking part in these foolish actions understand anything from history; that controlling or shutting down free speech and an independent media is the first action of totalitarian regimes and dictators."

The Times [£] in a leader: "When Extinction Rebellion’s blockade of printing presses used by this newspaper and other national titles led to retailers receiving newspapers late, or not at all, newsagents did not admit defeat. Instead they battled on...Neither Tesco nor Twitter will ever serve their communities as newsagents do. Theirs is not a merely transactional business. In an atomised world, they are citadels of civic duty and community spirit: where children learn the value of work for the first time, small indulgences are permitted without judgment, and the public interest served by bulging newsstands. We salute their dedication. Readers should use them before they lose them."

New BBC director-general Tim Davie in his  introductory speech in Cardiff: "If you want to be an opinionated columnist or a partisan campaigner on social media then that is a valid choice, but you should not be working at the BBC."

David Yelland on Twitter: "Tim Davie has made a faultless start, he’s one of the smartest leaders in global media right now, very rarely met anyone better. Those in my old newspaper world who seek to destroy the BBC will have a tougher time now. Good."

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet on Left Foot Forward: “It’s time the dark mutterings and veiled threats against the BBC stop. This pandemic has demonstrated the vital role a public service broadcaster plays in democratic societies, and the BBC and its staff rose to the challenge with round-the-clock local and national news coverage, current affairs, and investigations as well as in its unrivalled content and programming to support families home-schooling during an unprecedented period...Calls for Netflix-style subscription models only come from the enemies of public service broadcaster who would like to see the BBC emasculated and hobbled."

Ex-BBC Radio 4 Today editor Sarah Sands on BBC pay in a Sunday Times [£] interview: “I think, even in the City, you wouldn’t get these [pay] multiples. You’ve got a producer on £30k working 14-hour shifts, and a presenter on £600,000. It’s a shocker.”

Former British ambassador to the US Kim Darroch in The Sunday Times [£]: "In my time in diplomacy, all the prime ministers for whom I have worked, and all the US presidents I have observed, have had an edgy relationship with the media...No one I ever came across, however, had quite the sense of burning injustice that seemed to live inside Donald Trump. The relationship with the media had already deteriorated in the second half of his campaign. But once he was in office, it became still more toxic."

Spectator chairman Andrew Neil on Twitter after the Co-op said it would pull an ad from the magazine over its transgender coverage: "No need to bother, Co-op. As of today you are henceforth banned from advertising in The Spectator, in perpetuity. We will not have companies like yours use their financial might to try to influence our editorial content, which is entirely a matter for the editor. "

Retiring PA legal editor Mike Dodd, interviewed by Press Gazette: “The growth of privacy has gone too far. We now have a situation in which the Courtof Appeal takes the view that a man who is accused of or suspected of criminal activity or is even being investigated for potential criminal activity is entitled to regard that as being private informationthat shouldn’t be in the public domain – which is why we’ve got the situation where nobody is prepared to name the MP who is accused of raping a parliamentary worker despite the fact that she thinks he ought to be named.”

Quentin Letts in The Times [£] on his five years as a gossip columnist: "Few victims complained. The worst were public school headmasters, City tycoons and press proprietors’ wives: megalomaniacs, basically."


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