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: From the Financial Times' charity dinner sexual harassment scoop to should Facebook pay publishers for 'trusted' news?

The Financial Times' Madison Marriage on going undercover to investigate the sexual harassment at the Presidents Club charity event: "There was no other way of going in as women aren't welcome as guests. The men were initially quite decorous, but things very quickly took a turn for the worse. Some of the behaviour was pretty shocking and depressing."

The Financial Times undercover investigation into the Presidents Club charity event which led to its closure: "The Financial Times sent two people undercover to work as hostesses on the night. Reporters also gained access to the dining hall and surrounding bars. Over the course of six hours, many of the hostesses were subjected to groping, lewd comments and repeated requests to join diners in bedrooms elsewhere in the Dorchester."

• Mark Di Stefano @MarkDiStef on Twitter: "The Presidents Club investigation just passed 700k views making it the most read FT online story ever."

Press Gazette reports: "The Times has a larger daily print circulation than the Telegraph (when bulk sales are included) for the first time, new monthly figures show. The Times sold 446,204 copies in December last year, up on 393,310 at rival the Telegraph, according to ABC’s monthly newsbrands report."

The Competition & Markets Authority in a statement: "The CMA has provisionally found that Fox taking full control of Sky is not in the public interest due to media plurality concerns, but not because of a lack of a genuine commitment to meeting broadcasting standards in the UK. The media plurality concerns identified mean that, overall, the CMA provisionally concludes that the proposed transaction is not in the public interest."

Matthew Moore in The Times [£]: "Trust in social media has fallen to a record low as Britons lose faith in companies such as Facebook and Twitter, according to research. Fewer than a quarter of people trust the technology and publishing giants. Most Britons believe that such companies are doing too little to address extremism, tackle cyberbullying or prevent illegal use of their platforms, the world’s largest study of trust has found. Sixty-four per cent want social media companies to face tighter regulation. There are continuing calls for them to be accountable for inappropriate content. The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer also found: Trust in traditional media such as newspapers and television has jumped 13 percentage points in a year to 61 per cent, a six-year high, as consumers look for reliable news coverage."

The Observer in a leader on its new tabloid format and values: "Today, we are proud and excited to launch our new design for the Observer. We think it’s vital for a newspaper to shed its skin from time to time, to reimagine itself for loyal readers and to welcome a new generation to our journalism...In this country, a polarised politics has led to unprecedented official attacks on expert opinion and established fact. In America, President Trump’s “Fake News Awards” may have been a laughable distraction from the Mueller investigation but they were, too, a further signal that repressive forces are ascendant. In such a climate – and with an internet growth industry in deliberate untruth and unsourced conspiracy – reliable voices can be hard to find. The Observer can point to a tradition of putting itself not only at the heart, but also on the liberal, human, side of the issues of the moment."

Channel 4 News editor: Ben de Pear @bendepear on Twitter: "@Channel4News onscreen journalists expect to be held to account for their journalism but the level of vicious misogynistic abuse, nastiness, and threat to @cathynewman is an unacceptable response to a robust and engaging debate with @jordanbpeterson. Such is the scale of threat we @Channel4News are having to get security specialists in to carry out an analysis. I will not hesitate to get the police involved if necessary. What a terrible indictment of the times we live in."

The Times [£] on an analysis of Donald Trump's tweets: "The insights gleaned from the analysis show that Mr Trump, 71, did not start using the phrase “fake news” until December 2016, after the presidential campaign was over. He went on to use it 179 times last year. By doing so, he turned, in less than a year, an expression coined by the mainstream media to criticise his outlandish statements into one that conveyed his disdain for those same critics."

Sue Harris, NUJ national broadcasting organiser in a statement, after the union claimed half of the experienced producers on Panorama are to be made redundant: "The BBC's reputation and its remit as a public service broadcaster depend on flagship current affairs programmes such as Panorama and it is deeply worrying that staff say the latest cuts will all but kill off the programme and put their health and safety at risk."

Patrick Smith @psmith on Twitter: "Briefing Media, the company that owned TheMediaBriefing, which I edited during 2010-2013 (!), has rebranded itself to AgriBriefing  - proving that the future of media is in fact tractors."

Press Gazette reports: "The Times has a larger daily print circulation than the Telegraph (when bulk sales are included) for the first time, new monthly figures show. The Times sold 446,204 copies in December last year, up on 393,310 at rival the Telegraph, according to ABC’s monthly newsbrands report."

Rupert Murdoch in a News Corp statement: "Facebook and Google have popularized scurrilous news sources through algorithms that are profitable for these platforms but inherently unreliable. Recognition of a problem is one step on the pathway to cure, but the remedial measures that both companies have so far proposed are inadequate, commercially, socially and journalistically... If Facebook wants to recognize ‘trusted’ publishers then it should pay those publishers a carriage fee similar to the model adopted by cable companies. The publishers are obviously enhancing the value and integrity of Facebook through their news and content but are not being adequately rewarded for those services. Carriage payments would have a minor impact on Facebook’s profits but a major impact on the prospects for publishers and journalists.”

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Media Quotes of the Week: From BBC deal for 150 regional reporters will strengthen local journalism to damning analysis on closure of The New Day

Johnston Press boss Ashley Highfield in the i on the deal withe BBC to pay £8 million a year to fund 150 regional reporters to cover courts and councils: “We believe this will strengthen and enhance local journalism, and the crucial role it has in holding local authorities to account, while maintaining the healthy competition between different news sources which is so important in a democracy.More coverage and content from councils will be more widely distributed ensuring greater accountability and transparency in an ever more devolved Britain.”

Laura Davison, NUJ national organiser, in a statement: "The NUJ believes there is a democratic deficit in local news – the press is not covering the decisions of courts, councils and public bodies in a way which properly informs readers about their democratic institutions. But should it be the licence-fee payer who plugs this gap? Local newspaper groups have a proven track record of cutting staff, merging titles, closing local offices and overstretching the few workers left on the ground just to maintain their profits. What checks are there that these groups will not exploit this licence-fee subsidy in the same way?"

Tom Utley in the Daily Mail: "That's that, then. After all the luvvies’ wailing at the Baftas — and the hysterical claims that the Government was intent on turning the BBC into a ‘North Korea-style’ state broadcaster — Auntie seems to have come through her ten-yearly ordeal of charter renewal pretty much unscathed."

James Naughtie in the Big Issue: "It sounds corny but I remember watching the hot metal plates being put together and hearing the presses roll on my first day at the Aberdeen Press and Journal. It was like watching the Flying Scotsman pulling into a station. I tell my children and it sounds like a story from the Bronze Age. Don't get me started on the state of newspapers today. I find the decline of the printed page really sad."

Cathy Newman‏ @cathynewman on Twitter: "Glad sexist petition calling on BBC to sack @bbclaurak has been removed. A great reporter doing a great job."

BBC in a statement: "We are very disappointed that our reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and his team have been deported from North Korea after the government took offence at material he had filed."

Hunter Davies on 20 years as a sports columnist at the New Statesman: "I don’t think anyone in football actually reads the column. In November 1996 I was very disobliging about Gazza, saying he was 'unbalancing the team' and 'throwing himself around like a mad cow'. I kept this quiet when I later ghosted his autobiography."

Prince Harry interviewed by Andrew Marr on the BBC: “That line between public and private life is almost non-existent. Everyone has a right to their privacy, and a lot of the members of the public get it, but sadly in some areas there is this sort of incessant need to find out every little bit of detail about what goes on behind the scenes. It’s unnecessary.”

Jonathan Calvert on the Insight team of investigative journalists in the 10,000 edition of the Sunday Times [£]: "This type of journalism will never be easy and it will never be cheap. It also involves fighting for our right to freedom of expression in the courts. For The Sunday Times, two of the most significant events of last year were found not in our pages but in two libel victories that vindicated not just our commitment to investigative journalism but also our willingness to fight back at great expense when political heavyweights try to bully us."

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, on police PR Hayley Court who claims she was expected to persuade journalists to put the South Yorkshire force in a better light, and says she felt the police strategy over Hillsborough was to blame others, including the fans: "Hayley Court highlighted a stark example of unacceptable pressure being put on communications staff by employers facing difficult media coverage. Hayley Court is an experienced expert and she had set out to report the Hillsborough inquest hearings fairly. Her approach would have served South Yorkshire Police well, but she was put under extreme pressure, which she described as bullying, by senior officials to be a spin doctor for the force's ill-conceived position which included blaming fans for the tragic loss of life at that football game.”

Analyst Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX Capital, quoted by CityAM: “Trinity Mirror shares are popping as investors are cheering the group’s decision to ditch New Day. This is hardly a surprise – the move was moronic in the first place...Ill-conceived, badly executed and completely foolish – it’s hard to fathom what Trinity Mirror was trying to achieve.”

Roy Greenslade in the Guardian on the demise of The New Day: "Trinity Mirror had been bamboozled by optimistic forecasts of widespread public enthusiasm for a magazine-style paper with 'positive' content. Did no-one at the company stop to wonder at the unlikelihood of convincing a target audience composed of people who dislike newspapers to buy a newspaper?"

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Media Quotes of the Week: From Corbyn on 'scurrilous' tabloid attacks to why The Times' Anthony Loyd had to return to Syria after kidnap

Jeremy Corbyn in the New Statesman: "The scurrilous nature of some of the tabloid-style attacks on me and other candidates, as well as on our families, has been painful. It is easy to sympathise with Chuka Umunna’s reconsideration of whether to stand when he faced this onslaught in the days after announcing his leadership bid."

Roy Greenslade on his MediaGuardian blog: "It would appear that media reports of speeches denouncing Corbyn’s political and economic stance plus every newspaper leading article warning of Corbyn’s unsuitability for the job are having the reverse effect. So much for 'the power of the press' eh?"

The Daily Record in a leader: "THE Daily Record believes Corbyn's core Labour values provide the platform required to build a fairer country and improve the lives of ordinary Scots."

Cathy Newman ‏@cathynewman on Twitter after her Jeremy Corbyn interview: "Back from holiday 24 hours ago, now deluged with tweets calling for me to be sacked...for doing my job. Nice to be back Twitter #Corbyn"

Rupert Murdoch ‏@rupertmurdoch on Twitter"Corbyn increasingly likely Labor winner. Seems only candidate who believes anything, right or wrong."

BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead in the Independent: "We want to see whether the BBC can partner more with local media who in some cases may no longer have the resources to adequately cover areas like local government and court reporting. The trust would encourage the BBC to help plug the democratic deficit here."

Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times [£]: "When I edited a newspaper I would occasionally complain to the man in charge of the sports section that at every opportunity he would put football on the front of it, even when it seemed to me that there were other sporting events of greater significance going on that day. 'Boss,' he would invariably reply, 'there are only three big sports in this country: football, football and football'."

Jason Knauf, communications secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, in a letter to  leaders of media industry bodies and standards organisations: "Paparazzi photographers are going to increasingly extreme lengths to observe and monitor Prince George's movements and covertly capture images of him to sell to the handful of international media titles still willing to pay for them."

John Toner, NUJ freelance organiser, urges journalists not to accept terms to cover Notting Hill Carnival: “It is not acceptable that the media are expected to pay a fee to cover what is a genuine news event. It is equally unacceptable that the organisers expect pictures and video to be supplied free for their commercial purposes. For an individual freelance, this could mean working at a loss. We see no reason why freelances should be expected to subsidise the Carnival.We would urge all members to reject these conditions, and to cover the event from public spaces.”

Loyd: After his kidnap last year

Anthony Loyd in The Times [£] on why he returned to Syria: "Just over a year after being kidnapped and shot there in my own walk-on, carry-off part in someone else’s nightmare, I went back to Syria because I wanted to. Foremost, I was curious to see what was happening in the time since I was last there, having felt artificially divorced from the country after so many previous assignments covering the conflict. I was still angry enough, too, in the wake of the betrayal and my abduction 15 months earlier, to want to spit on the memory of being beaten and shot, to be able to stand by the leering abyss and whisper, 'I’m still here, alive, reporting. So f*** you.'...There was, of course, one other reason I went back. It is the hardest to explain, but perhaps the most valid of all: I went back because war sucks. It sucks you back in.”

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Quotes of the Week: From sexism in newspaper offices to the press regulation war kicks off

Cathy Newman (top) in the Telegraph: "Some of the most glaring instances of sexism directed at me took place in newspaper offices or at the hands of newspaper executives. When I worked for the Financial Times, I confronted a senior executive about the fact that a man who was significantly junior to me was getting paid a lot more. The executive asked me what I needed the money for, since I didn’t have a mortgage or a family. I laughed it off and made sure I got a pay rise. Slightly more intimidating was the time, ironically at a political party conference, when a man who was then the editor of a national newspaper started propositioning me in the bar, despite knowing I was in a long-term relationship, and despite my making it patently clear that I wasn’t interested."

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg , as quoted by the Daily Mail, on the journalists investigating Lord Rennard: "Self-appointed detectives."

Neil Wallis, former deputy editor at the News of the World, speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme after being told there was “insufficient evidence” to bring charges against him: “I think that they [the police] were under tremendous political pressure to make an arrest. I think something has to be questioned. We’re not bank robbers, we’re not rapists, we’re not murderers. 21 months is an awful long time. There should be a cut off point. There are 60 journalists under arrest at the moment – more journalists than are under arrest in Iran.”

 Peter Oborne in the Telegraph: "Meanwhile there’s informed speculation that James Harding, recently sacked as editor of the Times, is to be given un unspecified role in the news operation. This is hardly encouraging. ''Scoop’’ Harding memorably turned down the MPs’ expenses story (later picked up by The Daily Telegraph) while overseeing a 40 per cent collapse in circulation during his five years as editor."

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet, in a statement: "They [newspaper publishers] have gone back on their promises to pick up the Leveson recommendations, generally seen as moderate and proportionate, and have conspired together to offer a solution that ignores journalists, excludes the public and the victims of phone hacking and serves only the interests of publishers.”

Mick Brown on 25 years of Matt cartoons in the Telegraph: "What makes Matt so distinctive? His cartoons are gentle, wry, alive to the absurdities of daily life; the things we love, and the things we don’t. They are unerring in their dissection of the follies and vanities of human nature, but they are utterly devoid of venom or malice. It is the humour of gentle mockery, cut with the delicious pang of recognition. They are often a beat ahead of you – the joke you wish you had thought of, but know you never could."

Professor Peter Cole in the new book After Leveson? on the various meetings of hackademics and media pundits that followed the Leveson Report: "The meetings were frequently lofty, seldom including representation (of advocates or views) from the popular press which was at the heart of the Leveson inquiry. The ‘hackademics’ seemed often to be the most detached from the real commercial world, some giving the impression that all would be well if the Guardian was the only newspaper on sale, distaste for the Daily Mail and all things Murdoch seemingly a badge of office."

Dorothy Byrne, commissioning editor for Channel 4 news and current affairs, speaking at the , reported launch of After Leveson?: "Anybody thinking about legal regulation of the press needs to take into account that large corporations and evil regimes will try to use it to stop freedom of speech."

Hacked Off associate director Evan Harris on the prospects of press regulation backed by a Royal Charter, at the After Leveson? launch: "There is no sign of agreement. It is far short of Leveson. I don't believe a Royal Charter will happen"

Mick Hume, after being told to calm down by Evan Harris at the After Leveson? launch debate: "This is a fucking war."