Media Quotes of the Week: From ITV reporter asks Boris Johnson if everything is okay to Royal Family blasts BBC over Princes and the Press documentary

ITV reporter to the Prime Minister: “In your speech to the CBI, you lost your notes, you lost your place, you went off on a tangent about Peppa Pig. Frankly, is everything okay?"

Andrew Darling in a letter to The Times [£]: "Sir, Hugo Rifkind (Comment, Nov 16) is right to suggest that the reason the prime minister turned up at the Cenotaph looking neat and respectable is that he did not have time to scruff himself up beforehand. When I was news editor at Channel Four News in the 1990s one of my tasks was to escort guests from reception via make-up to the studio. I recall the evening when I collected Boris Johnson and took him to make-up, where his face was duly powdered and his hair neatly brushed. Virtually his first action on then setting off to be interviewed by Jon Snow was to run both hands vigorously through his hair until he once again, as Rifkind rightly describes it, resembled someone whose second job is 'being tied to a pole in a field with a turnip for a head'.”

Stewart Purvis on Twitter: "Nadine Dorries tells @CommonsDCMS Channel 4’s future should be ‘brought into question,particularly when it is in receipt of taxpayers’ money. It is our responsibility to evaluate whether taxpayers are receiving value for money’. Channel 4 receives no taxpayers’ money."

Paul Dacre, in a letter to The Times [£], reveals he will not be reapplying to be the new chair of Ofcom: "To anyone from the private sector, who, God forbid, has convictions, and is thinking of applying for a public appointment, I say the following: the civil service will control (and leak) everything; the process could take a year in which your life will be put on hold; and if you are possessed of an independent mind and are unassociated with the liberal-left, you will have more chance of winning the lottery than getting the job. Me? After my infelicitous dalliance with the Blob, I’m taking up an exciting new job in the private sector that, in a climate that is increasingly hostile to business, struggles to create the wealth to pay for all those senior civil servants working from home so they can spend more time exercising on their Peloton bikes and polishing their political correctness, safe in the knowledge that it is they, not elected politicians, who really run this country."

George Osborne on Twitter: "I admired Dacre’s forceful editorship of the Mail even if I was often on the wrong end of it. Can’t quite understand why he - like others of his ilk - wielded such power, got the government, the PM and the Brexit he wanted, and still thinks the system is stacked against him."

Press Gazette reports: "Former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre is returning to his advisory editor-in-chief position at Mail publisher DMG Media, just three weeks after leaving the same role."

Rory Cellan-Jones on Twitter: "Blimey. As the Chinese saying goes if you sit by the river long enough you’ll see the body of Geordie Greig go floating by. Makes Succession look like The Vicar of Dibley."

Andrew Marr on Twitter: "Personal announcement. After 21 years, I have decided to move on from the BBC.l leave behind many happy memories and wonderful colleagues. But from the New Year I am moving to Global to write and present political and cultural shows, and to write for newspapers...I think British politics and public life are going to go through an even more turbulent decade, and as I’ve said, I am keen to get my own voice back."

Bill Browder on Twitter: "The 2021 winner of the Magnitsky Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalist is Catherine Belton. She has exposed the crimes of the Putin regime in ways that nobody has ever done before. She’s now paid a very dear price in their retaliation with multiple abusive libel suits."

Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and Clarence House in a joint-statement on BBC2 documentary The Princes and the Press, as reported by the Mail: "A free, responsible and open Press is of vital importance to a healthy democracy. However, too often overblown and unfounded claims from unnamed sources are presented as facts and it is disappointing when anyone, including the BBC, gives them credibility."

• David Aaronovitch on Twitter: "Just watched the first part of BBC2’s Royals and the press series. I am struck by how much time, money and intelligent people’s effort is spent on earnest discussion of what is, when all is said and done, fatuous, gossipy nonsense."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From Culture Secretary says BBC has forgotten about the working class to best of British journalism is often in local press

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries interviewed in the Sun: "When I talk about access, I mean the make-up of who works at the BBC. They often tell us what percentage of their employees are gay, black or trans. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about what the BBC is doing to represent the vast number of low socio-economic, non-diverse areas in the UK. Places like Breck Road, like Leicester and Bradford. Towns and cities with big council estates and strong working-class communities. It’s almost like they have forgotten about them. They didn’t think they really mattered because nobody was raising the issue. It’s about group-think. The BBC thinks in one way about lots of issues. But that groupthink is out of step with what the majority of other people in the UK think.”

Nick Robinson interviewing Boris Johnson on the Today programme: "Prime Minister, stop talking. We are going to have questions and answers, not where you merely talk, if you wouldn’t mind."

John Simpson on Twitter: "Margaret Thatcher was the first British political leader to question publicly whether the BBC should have a future. ‘It’s so left-wing,’ she told a group of us. ‘But you say you never watch tv; how do you know?’ I asked. ‘Rupert Murdoch keeps me informed about it,’ she replied."

Michelle Stanistreet NUJ general secretary in a statement on the £75k a year pay increase for BBC director general Tim Davie: “NUJ members gave their all over the past 18 months to provide the best possible service to the public during the pandemic. Their reward was a pay freeze last year, and a below-inflation deal this year. This lavish bung for the director general, accompanied by briefings that try to justify his pay in relation to the so-called ‘market’, is tone deaf and represents an insult to staff whose remuneration is repeatedly approached through the prism of public sector constraints."

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on its Pandora Papers investigation: "The ICIJ obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files and led a team of more than 600 journalists from 150 news outlets that spent two years sifting through them, tracking down hard-to-find sources and digging into court records and other public documents from dozens of countries. The leaked records come from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients often seeking to keep their financial activities in the shadows. The records include information about the dealings of nearly three times as many current and former country leaders as any previous leak of documents from offshore havens."

Ed Cumming in the Observer on doing work experience at the NME: "One evening I was offered 24 cans of Carling to stay late and transcribe an interview with Keith Richards. The next morning I was asked if there were any 'news lines'. Not really, I said. Just the usual Keith Richards stuff. A few days later I saw some of the words I’d typed up on the front page of the Sun under the headline: KEITH: I SNORTED MY DAD."

Joe Thomas in the Liverpool Echo on Kier Starmer writing for the Sun: "When Mr Starmer stood on a stage in this great city and vowed not to speak with the S*n during his leadership campaign he was content to receive the support that followed. Now that he is leader he may argue he is involved in a different campaign that requires a different approach. Yet if this is a calculated political gamble it is one that, to many on Merseyside, renders his past words hollow and creates the sense that it is the support of this Labour stronghold that he is willing to risk in his pursuit of power."

Afghan journalists in an appeal to the international community via Reporters Without Borders: "In the short term, we need strong support for evacuations of journalists in danger, by assigning them all necessary diplomatic, consular and financial resources. Journalists who have fled the country must be given facilities so that they continue to work as journalists. At this historic and also chaotic time, the disappearance of Afghan journalism would be disastrous. Ensuring the safety of media professionals is crucial in order to preserve the fundamental right of all Afghan citizens to receive accurate news and information, a prerequisite for any hope of one day seeing Afghanistan on the road to a lasting peace. Help us to make Afghan journalism survive."

Bill Browder interviewed by John Sweeney for  Index on Censorship on the libel action against ex-Financial Times journalist Catherine Belton's book Putin's People: “I’ve known Catherine for many years. She’s one of the most rigorous reporters I’ve ever come across. I’ve read her book. And my own view is that the libel action against her is creating a climate of fear among journalists...This is, in my opinion, not just about terrorising Catherine Belton, this is an act of terror that terrorises you and every other journalist and every other publishing company. And so I fear this will have a huge damping effect on vigorous reporting about what’s going on in Russia, without question. And I think it goes well beyond Catherine Belton."

Alastair Campbell on Twitter: "It’s such a shame that most people in the country do not see the best of British journalism. So often it is local and regional. Most of the national front pages these days are now either propaganda or trivia."

Media Quotes of the Week: From Johnson's assurances on Official Secrets Act count for nothing if proposals aren't dropped to justice still sought for murdered journalist Martin O'Hagan after 20 years

The Times [£] in a leader: "With an airy wave of the hand, Boris Johnson dismissed the threatto public interest journalism from the government’s review of the Official Secrets Act. 'Not for a minute' would proposals for lengthy prison terms for journalists and whistleblowers prevent the exposure of scandals of national importance, the prime minister said. This is simply untrue. The proposals contained in the present consultation are the greatest threat to public interest journalism in a generation and Mr Johnson’s assurances count for naught unless it is abandoned."

The Financial Times in a leader: "The fourth estate must be free from the threat of prosecution simply for doing its job. That includes holding the government to account, for which [Priti] Patel’s colleagues have provided more than enough fertile ground. The Home Office’s plans are still, mercifully, at an early stage and are yet to even reach bill stage. Patel’s introduction to the consultation claims the government wants to thwart 'attempts to interfere in democratic processes'. She could start by binning the proposals."

Martin Bright, acting editor, Index on Censorship, in a letter to The Times [£]: "It is indeed troubling that a prime minister who considers himself a journalist demonstrates so little solidarity for fellow members of his trade. Media freedom is an increasingly precious commodity in a world where objective truth is under constant attack. It is to be hoped that Boris Johnson remembers where his loyalties should lie and consigns this ill-considered new secrecy law to the authoritarian dustbin, where it belongs."

British media organisations in a letter to Downing Street requesting urgent sanctuary for Afghans who worked with British journalists, as reported by The Times [£]: “There is an urgent need to act quickly, as the threat to their lives is already acute and worsening. If left behind, those Afghan journalists and media employees who have played such a vital role informing the British public by working for British media will be left at the risk of persecution, of physical harm, incarceration, torture, or death.”

HoldTheFrontPage reports: "A regional publisher is set to spark a digital news war in the UK’s 'major metropolitan centres' with a series of new launches – creating 45 jobs in the process. JPIMedia has announced it is launching new websites to cover Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow, with further launches to follow in London, Birmingham, Bristol and Wales. All eight cities are currently home to news sites run by rival publisher Reach plc."

David Aaronovitch in The Times [£] on the antivaxers [£]: "The most serious threats from this new movement are widespread disinformation (mostly pseudoscience) and violence. A determined culture of countering disinformation — as embraced by the BBC and by this newspaper in employing specialist data journalists — is more useful even than social media takedowns. It just needs to be spread."

BBC News reports: "A public inquiry into the assassination of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has found the state responsible for her death. The report said the state had failed to recognise risks to the reporter's life and take reasonable steps to avoid them. Caruana Galizia died in a car bomb attack near her home in October 2017."

John Kampfner in The Times [£] on the libel proceedings against journalist Catherine Belton's book: Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West: "The issue around libel law is not whether these individuals are entitled to defend their reputations or whether journalists are required to conduct due diligence on their work. It is about a system stacked in favour of the powerful that stifles legitimate investigation. What is remarkable about Belton is her determination to see this through. She could have done what many journalists do and removed anything contentious. As I re-read my piece before sending it over, I just snipped out a couple of lines. It’s easily done."

Catherine Belton on Twitter: "I'm incredibly grateful to @HarperCollins (@WmCollinsBooks) and its legal team for their tremendous support and their staunch defence of Putin's People. It would not be possible to defend the book against this claim or write on matters of considerable public interest without them."

Bill Browder in the Telegraph: “This threatens to be the biggest legal pile on I’ve ever seen and it risks deterring future journalists from writing about Putin’s wealth. English libel laws need to be amended to prevent these cases being brought in the future.”

David Leigh on Twitter: "Personally, if I were a UK lawyer, I like to think I wouldnt choose to act for Russian oligarchs against authors in return for very large sums of money."

Suzanne Moore on substack:  "I have worked for several papers: The Independent, The Mail on Sunday, The Guardian and The Telegraph and although everyone imagines them to be very different, my overwhelming experience is that while the ideological tone comes from the top, most of the people that I have worked with on a day-to-day basis are similar. This is not what many want to hear.  They want to hear that the Mail is staffed by evil, small-minded idiots while The Guardian is staffed by living saints. In fact, in many ways these two papers have been the most similar places to work for as they both know who their readers are and reflect them back to themselves."   

Irish Times group managing director Liam Kavanagh reporting a 89,688 year-on-year rise in digital and home delivery subscribers: “It was an excellent year in extremely difficult circumstances. We found a new level in paid subscribers, which was very heartening for us. You can’t get a better compliment than a reader paying for your product.”

NUJ Belfast and District branch chair Robin Wilson, on an Amnesty International backed call for a new investigation into the murder of journalist Martin O'Hagan (pictured) in Lurgan nearly 20 years ago: “It is unconscionable that as the 20th anniversary of Martin’s murder approaches no one has yet been brought to justice for it. We believe that an independent investigation should be initiated into his killing at a matter of urgency. It’s vital that those who attack journalists and our right to report are brought before the court. Impunity sends a signal, especially in a context where journalists are subject to recurrent hate speech and threats, that perpetrators of such abuse need fear no legal consequences. "

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Media Quotes of the Week: From the 37 heads of state shamed as predators of press freedom to selling off Channel 4 stinks of vindictiveness

Reporters Without Borders [RSF] secretary-general Christophe Deloire on the publishing of a gallery of heads of state or government who crack down on press freedom: "There are now 37 leaders from around the world in RSF’s predators of press freedom gallery and no one could say this list is exhaustive. Each of these predators has their own style. Some impose a reign of terror by issuing irrational and paranoid orders. Others adopt a carefully constructed strategy based on draconian laws. A major challenge now is for these predators to pay the highest possible price for their oppressive behaviour. We must not let their methods become the new normal.”

• Nearly half (17) of the predators are making their first appearance onthe 2021 list, which RSF is publishing five years after the last one, from 2016.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema after Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, known for his work in exposing the criminal underworld, was shot after leaving a television studio, as reported by Reuters: "He was seriously wounded and is fighting for his life. He is a national hero to us all. A rare, courageous journalist who tirelessly sought justice."

Nick Cohen in The Critic on journalist Catherine Belton's book Putin's People over which she and her publisher are being sued in the London libel courts by Russian billionaires: "I am reviewing a book that cannot be reviewed. Libel lawyers tell me that, if I recommend that you read it, I could open this magazine and myself to court action. Not in Russia where the judiciary has been the loyal servant of the Kremlin since the early 2000s, but here in England, a land we once assumed possessed a modicum of freedom."

The Russian Journalists’ and Media Workers’ Union (JMWU) in a statement after Russian authorities raided the apartments of investigative journalists of the online outlet Proekt in Moscow, said it was: "Outraged by the unlawful actions of the security officials and demands to immediately stop the 'libel' case and the persecution of Proekt employees, as well as other Russian investigative journalists.”

BBC Radio Ulster TV and BBC Radio 5 presenter Stephen Nolan, after a Twitter troll apologised and agreed to pay a six-figure damages sum for making defamatory remarks about him: "This  individual had been running a malicious campaign designed to undermine me and hinder my journalism. I am deeply grateful to the BBC, who will always judge me fairly on its editorial standards rather than the lies this individual attempted to propagate."

Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman, quoted by Press Gazette: “Online abuse is just totally dehumanising. There’s no other word for it really. When I got death threats and had my home address put online I didn’t feel like a human being. I felt as if I was being eviscerated by a pack of dogs in the street. It was really stressful for me, it was really time-consuming to deal with as well, but it was also really stressful for my family particularly because my teenage daughter came across some of the abuse online.”

Kelvin MacKenzie on Twitter: "Hilarious that Sarah Vine should ask for privacy about her marital woes when only a week ago in her MoS column she invaded her own privacy by pouring a thinly disguised bucket of shit all over Gove. She is paid a fortune to tear people apart and does it well. The biter bit...The Sun has known for months about the Gove-Vine separation but chose not to publish it as the Cabinet minister was a MoM ( mate of Murdoch)."

• Sun on Sunday political editor David Wooding on Twitter: "This is categorically not the case. Several papers had heard the rumours but none had the proof and MG's team issued constant denials. I suspect you know what happens when you print things that you can't prove are the truth."

Sara Fischer on Axios on the media rebounding in the U.S.: "About 963 newsroom jobs have been lost so far this year — down 91% from the 10,576 cuts through the same period last year, according to new data." 

The big picture: "Other factors, like record advertising growth and the speedy return of live events, suggest the media industry is rebounding quicker than it originally anticipated."

Why it matters: "A year ago, media companies were reeling from the early effects of COVID-19 — scrambling for loans and laying off thousands while hoping to make it through a possible recession. Now, things are looking up, mostly because the economy didn't collapse." 

Driving the news: "New data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. suggests that while many media jobs are still being lost, hundreds are starting to be added. So far this year, media employers in U.S. have announced 725 new hiring plans, compared to just 12 this time last year."

Chris Matheson, shadow minister for digital, culture, media and sport, in The Times [£]: "Sadly, this government has a track record of rolling over for foreign-owned tech and media companies. They talk of 'global Britain' but the reality is selling off great British institutions such as Channel 4 to foreign owners, whose understanding of the UK is limited and whose loyalty is trumped every time by the demand for a hefty return. This plan stinks of petulance, vindictiveness and ideology in the face of facts. Labour will oppose it. But expect big opposition too from anyone who still supports the ethos of public service broadcasting, and from our world-beating independent TV production sector and the wider creative industries. They know an anti-British idea when they see it."

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Media Quotes of the Week: Russian billionaires use London libel courts to sue journalist over Putin book to silly season arrives early with gunboats

Nick Cohen in the Observer on how journalist Catherine Belton is being sued in the UK libel courts by four Russian billionaires and a Russian oil company over her acclaimed book Putin's People: "The former Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times now faces a pile-on from Russian billionaires on a scale this country has never witnessed...London’s lawyers are hard at work. Carter-Ruck, CMS, Harbottle & Lewis and Taylor Wessing have a billionaire apiece in a kind of socialism of the litigious...Rosneft and Abramovich are not only suing HarperCollins, they are suing Belton personally If they are successful, they could strip her of what few assets she owns. You can see why journalists walk around on tiptoes."

The Financial Times in a leader: "Despite reforms curtailing so-called libel tourism, England remains a venue of choice for claimants. Unlike in the US, there is no constitutional protection of free speech and fewer requirements for public figures to meet before they can successfully sue...Claimants must be able to vindicate their rights in court where claims are well founded. But the costs of the current system hand the super-rich an advantage and can distort outcomes. The scales of justice must balance accuracy with greater tolerance of free speech. Without a recalibration, the system could enable privatised censorship."

Hillary Clinton, interviewed in the Guardian: “The technology platforms are so much more powerful than any organ of the so-called mainstream press, and I do think that there has to be not just an American reckoning but a global reckoning with the disinformation, with the monopolistic power and control, with the lack of accountability that the platforms currently enjoy.”

Kelvin MacKenzie on Press Gazette on the Sun's former chief reporter John Kay who has died aged 77: "He loved his gossip but what you could never prise from him was the source of his stories. Disgracefully Rupert Murdoch did that when he ordered the details of payments made to public officials by Sun journalists should be handed to Scotland Yard. John was among 22 staff that Murdoch threw under the bus to save his own skin when threatened with a corporate charge which would have forced him out of his own company. In my years of running The Sun Murdoch never asked where John’s fantastic tales came from; he was only interested that we had them so we could sell more papers, make more money and stuff the opposition. All 22 were cleared, but what broke John was one of his best contacts over the years ended up being jailed."

Roy Greenslade on Twitter: "UK press guilty of ignoring innocent victims of Ballymurphy. Inquest coverage: Guardian, p1 with pic; Times p1, one par + p19; Telegraph, p1 one par + p9 (with that insensitive headline); Mail, p22; Mirror, p21; Express, p21; Sun, p20; i, p1 mention + p4. Editors just don't care."

Mr Justice Cohen refusing a request by Telegraph owner Sir Frederick Barclay to keep details of his divorce settlement private, as reported by the Guardian: “[Barclay] is a public figure who should have been aware of the potential consequences of disobedience of court orders and his behaviour in the proceedings should not be allowed to pass completely under the radar.”

All Party Parliamentary Group on Religion in the Media report Learning to Listen: "Journalists must be able to question freely and criticise religious beliefs – such criticism may well be merited. Highlighting shortcomings and exposing hypocrisy is a vital feature of public interest journalism and a responsibility not to be shirked in a democracy that values freedom of the press. But too often in our evidence sessions, we heard that media reporting on religion can be sensationalising, that it can reinforce problematic stereotypes, commit basic mistakes and use imprecise language, and that it homogenises faith communities whilst ignoring the diversity within faith groups."

The report recommends: "We argue for a corrective to the current system of press regulation to enable groups to make complaints on the grounds of discrimination. We also call for government to look again at press regulation arguing that there is a need for greater public confidence that the press is meaningfully, independently regulated...We propose religious literacy training be formally incorporated into professional media qualifications and journalism courses."

The Observer in a leader: "Oh, what a lovely war! The summer silly season arrived early for the Brexiters and their Fleet Street cheerleaders, and didn’t they enjoy it! In a week that commemorated the death of Napoleon, and on the eve of today’s Europe Day, which celebrates peace and unity across a continent for which greater generations of Britons fought and died, they picked a foolish scrap with the French for old times’ sake, then claimed a spurious victory...Real battles threaten communities around the globe. But what’s the big news for foreigner-baiting tabloids? The imaginary “Battle of St Helier”, a fake story told with sick relish, bad puns and shameful jingoism."