The Best Media Quotes of 2012: An arresting year for British journalists and journalism. . . .

Arrest of Journalists

Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford on his blog, commenting on the arrest of more than 20 journalists in the UK: "For eight of the nine years I've worked for Press Gazette the arrest of a journalist in the course of their work has been an extraordinarily rare occurrence in the UK. Today it is commonplace. In previous years, editors and publishers would have protested from the rooftops at the sight of police bids to disclose sources and close down unofficial leaks of information by use of draconian powers. Today, at News International anyway, editors and publishers are not just mute - but complicit in the arrest of journalists and disclosure of sources."

 Mail's Lawrence campaign leads to convictions

Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian: "He made an unlikely anti-racist campaigner, but there were few voices more critical in the demand for justice for Stephen Lawrence than Paul Dacre and the Daily Mail. It was the Mail's 1997 front page headline, branding Lawrence's alleged killers "Murderers", that helped make the case impossible to ignore. It was, without question, the Mail's finest hour."

Tony Parsons on Twitter: "Congratulations to Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan for bringing Stephen Lawrence's killers to justice - oh, sorry, I mean the British press."

Marie Colvin killed in Syria

Peter Oborne in the Daily Telegraph: "Some will observe that many other people died in the Syrian fighting yesterday, and may very reasonably ask what is so special about one Western journalist. There is great insight in this question because it points to the solipsism of a world in which it seems sometimes that terrible events only really register when an affluent white person gets killed. But remember this: without the staggering fortitude and self-sacrifice of Marie Colvin, and her journalist colleagues still reporting from the carnage in Syria, we simply would not have a sense of the nature or the scale of the killing."

Channel 4 News' Jon Snow on Twitter: "Assad's assassination of Marie Colvin:Utterly devastating: the most couragious journalist I ever knew and a wonderful reporter and writer."

Marie Colvin in an email to Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East editor, about her final Sunday Times article on Homs: "I thought yesterday's piece was one of those we got in to journalism for. They are killing with impunity here, it is sickening and anger-making."

Leveson gives his verdict

Lord Justice Leveson in his Report: "There have been too many times when, chasing the story, parts of the press have acted as if its own code, which it wrote, simply did not exist. This has caused real hardship and, on occasion, wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people whose rights and liberties have been disdained. This is not just the famous but ordinary members of the public, caught up in events (many of them, truly tragic) far larger than they could cope with but made much, much worse by press behaviour that, at times, can only be described as outrageous."

David Cameron in the House of Commons, as reported by BBC News, after saying he had "serious misgivings" about independent self regulation of the press being underpinned by law because: "We would have crossed the Rubicon of writing elements of press regulation into the law of the land, we should be wary of legislation that has potential to infringe free speech and a free press."

The Daily Mail in a leader: "To his enormous credit, however, David Cameron sees this report for what it is — a mortal threat to the British people’s historic right to know. If he prevails in protecting that right, with the help of like-minded freedom lovers in the Commons and Lords, he will earn a place of honour in our history."

Chris Horrie, quoted in the Independent, on Leveson: "Kelvin MacKenzie is a national treasure and he's very funny, but asking him for advice on the ethics of journalism is like asking Harold Shipman for advice on medical ethics. This thing is just a circus."

Baroness Buscombe, ex chair of the Press Complaints Commission, at Leveson: "I remember towards the end of my time there, one of the editors asked me 'Peta, don't you trust us?'. And I said with an incredibly heavy heart 'How can I?'. We felt we hadn't been told the truth."

Sir Harold Evans at Leveson: "We have a situation where newspapers employ private detectives. We used to employ reporters".

Rupert Murdoch at Leveson: "I love newspapers... my shareholders would like me to get rid of them all."

Gordon Brown at the Leveson Inquiry: “Would any mother or father presented with a choice as to whether the medical condition of their four-month-old son should be broadcast on the front page of a tabloid newspaper, and who had a choice in this matter, allow it?”

Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher ‏@gallaghereditor on Twitter on the post-Leveson meeting of national newspaper editors in Downing Street: "It felt like the summoning of the Five Families in The Godfather "

Dan Sabbagh in the Guardian: "There is, behind the scenes, an almost comic attempt to get all the newspaper groups to sign up to some sort of statement on regulatory reform. But it would be easier to get 10 cats to sashay down Oxford Street in a straight line."

Emily Bell on the Guardian's Comment is Free: "Leveson deals with the nefarious ways of publishing personal information; it deals with the fallout of incestuous relationships run from the heart of government; and it deals with the personal cost of people crushed by journalism-as-showbusiness. What it cannot deal with is the regulation of the press in the 21st century." 

Harry Evans vindicated on Times

Sir Harold Evans on the Today programme about the revelation Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch met shortly before he was allowed to buy The Times and Sunday Times: "It's highly improper. Here's a prime minister meeting one of a number of bidders for Times Newspapers in secret. There's no mention of the law on monopolies. The whole thing is so squalid, I don't know whether to laugh or cry at being vindicated after all this time."

Good press, bad press

Ben Fenton, of the Financial Times, speaking in a discussion on the Leveson Inquiry at the Frontline Club: "The difference between a good newspaper and a bad newspaper is that on a good newspaper the reporter tells the newsdesk what the story is and on a bad newspaper it is the other way around."  

Regional press under pressure

Chris Oakley on the regional press in the book What Do We Mean By Local?, edited by John Mair, Neil Fowler and Ian Reeves: "The real losers from the financial folly of the past decade are communities up and down the country which are now worse informed than a century ago."

Chris Oakley at the Society of Editors' regional conference in Manchester: "Time has run out for big city dailies, the internet has hit regional daily newspapers particularly hard, I wouldn't buy a big city daily even for a pound."

The Leicester Mercury NUJ chapel in an open letter to their boss - publisher David Simms - protesting at more job cuts: "We are being run by a man - you, Mr Simms - who recently told journalists here that you did not read a daily newspaper. You also said that you did not like sport - one of the main drivers of the Mercury’s sales. Neither statement inspired confidence, and now our fears have been abundantly justified."

Ex-Western Daily Press editor Terry Manners in Press Gazette: "I will never forget the words of the time-and-motion man who was assigned with a team to cut operational costs in the building. They hurt us all greatly. 'The trouble with you and your team, Terry, is that you are trying to be too professional,' he said. 'You don't need to be. Leave it to the nationals.' Sadly he won."

Gordon Brown at Leveson: "My own local newspaper has just had its editorial staff merged with the next door newspaper. They’re running down the numbers of staff that are providing this local service and I think you would find this in every part of the country that you go into, and more than that, you’re finding it all across the world now, because an internet journalist, who is someone who’s sort of doing their own, if you like, self-journalism, can put their views up on a screen and put their views across the world, but if they’re not resourced and they’re not doing proper research and there’s no investigative journalism, then we’re diminishing the quality of the output that is available to us.”

Peter Oborne at Leveson: "For all its blissful parish magazine quality the regional press does not play a serious role in addressing Poulson-style scandals which go on to this day."

 Local World chairman David Montgomery, as quoted by Press Gazette: “This is an entirely new type of media business. The value of Local World will lie in its people, its franchises and its IP. It will be unencumbered by the infrastructure of the industrial past such as property, printing presses and large scale distribution or any legacy issues such as high levels of debt. Local World signals the fightback in Britain’s regional media industry.”

Brooks to Cameron

 Rebekah Brooks in email to David Cameron, leaked to the Mail on Sunday: "Brilliant speech. I cried twice. Will love working together."

Clarkson on Watson

Jeremy Clarkson on Tom Watson MP on Have I Got News For You: "A neckless, adenoidal Brummie who is a pitiful waste of blood and organs."

Fired up tweet

Lambeth Council PR Sam Masters sets fire to his job and resigns after tweeting: “Having spent a considerable amount of time in Streatham, my solutions for supporting the High Road mostly involve napalm.” 

Joyful text

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt in a text message to James Murdoch re-BSkyB: “Great and congrats on Brussels, just Ofcom to go!”.

The Last Word

David Hepworth on the closure of his magazine The Word : "We regret to announce that the August issue of The Word, which will be published in the second week of July, will be the last. In the nine years since the magazine launched there have been dramatic changes in the media and the music business. These changes have made it more difficult for a small independent magazine to survive and provide its staff with a living. This hasn't been made any easier by the economic climate of the wider world."

Golden Oldie

 
Richard Ingrams in the Telegraph celebrating 20 years of his magazine, The Oldie: "Soon after issue one went on sale, Julie Burchill sent me a fax saying: 'Congratulations on producing the most pathetic magazine ever published.' I felt more confident. It was exactly the kind of attack from exactly the kind of person to suggest that we must be doing something right."  

Tory MPs clash over Prince Harry pics

Louise Mensch quoted in the Sun supporting the paper's publication of naked Prince Harry pics: “We cannot have our press scared to publish things that are in the public interest. Someone, a total stranger, took those photos — and honeytraps have happened.” 

MP Nadine Dorries on ConservativeHome on Louise Mensch:  "I would ask the former MP, next time she wants to open her mouth about a boy who lost his mother at the hands of the media in a way which shocked the world, she might want to look to her own heart and wonder how she would feel? After all, it’s not as though Prince Harry has admitted to taking illegal drugs, abandoned his post, or failed to turn up to work every Thursday in the style of Louise Mensch, now is it?"

Simply Outrageous 

Jonathan Chait in New York magazine: "The British press is an outrage-generating machine the likes of which we American reporters can only gaze upon with awe."

Saving the Guardian

David Leigh in the Guardian: "A small levy on UK broadband providers – no more than £2 a month on each subscriber's bill – could be distributed to news providers in proportion to their UK online readership. This would solve the financial problems of quality newspapers, whose readers are not disappearing, but simply migrating online."

The Sun in a leader: "THOSE deluded and arrogant hand-wringers at The Guardian have come up with a bonkers scheme to impose a tax on broadband users to fund money- haemorrhaging publications like their own. We have a more sensible proposal. Why not simply put together a product that excites and engages the British public."

Sun's Shame  over Hillsborough

Dominic Mohan, editor of the Sun, apologises for its infamous 'The Truth' Hillsborough front page: ''Twenty-three years ago The Sun newspaper made a terrible mistake. We published an inaccurate and offensive story about the events at Hillsborough. We said it was the truth - it wasn't. The Hillsborough Independent Panel has now established what really happened that day. It's an appalling story and at the heart of it are the police's attempts to smear Liverpool fans. It's a version of events that 23 years ago The Sun went along with and for that we're deeply ashamed and profoundly sorry."

Deadly Ed

Charles Moore interviewing Labour leader Ed Miliband in the Daily Telegraph: "At this point, a mosquito settles on my shoulder. With a commanding show of decision, Mr Miliband squashes it, spattering its remarkably copious blood over my light grey suit. So that’s how he deals with capitalist parasites."

Careful what you tweet

Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger on Twitter, in the Guardian's Open door column: "People have to understand that when they use Twitter they have the same ethical and legal responsibilities as with any other medium." 

Trashing Trolls

Ex-Loaded editor Martin Daubney in Press Gazette: "We live in the age of the trolls. You get a shit storm of Tweets, in real time, for saying anything opinionated. My advice? Don’t take online feedback to heart, be dignified and never engage in a Tweet-off with the haters. Remember: you’re getting paid to write, they’re not. Tall poppies will always attract scythes."

Newsnight and Jimmy Savile 

 

Liz MacKean, one of the Newsnight journalists who investigated sex abuse claims against Jimmy Savile, in an email to BBC director general George Entwistle, as reported by the Independent: "To see what began as a BBC story running large on ITV is a hard thing. For it not to be mentioned in any way on Newsnight is another, quite absurd, thing. But worst of all has been what seems like a concerted effort to make it appear that our story was about something else, something that could be dropped and forgotten ahead of fulsome tribute programmes. It is this which seems to be fuelling the damaging claims of a cover-up."

Nick Pollard in his review of how the BBC handled the Savile story: "The efforts to get to the truth behind the Savile story proved beyond the combined efforts of the senior management, legal department, corporate communications team and anyone else for well over a month."

Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail: "If Jimmy Savile was alive today, he’d have been a star witness at Leveson, given the full ‘Sir James’ treatment by his lordship and allowed to trash the Press without fear of contradiction or cross-examination."

Do I go or do I stay now?

Lord Patten on what the BBC Trust conveyed to George Entwistle, as reported by the BBC:  "We are not urging you to go. But we are not urging you to stay."  

Tucked Up

Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It: "The Guardian...a newspaper that hates newspapers."  

Is it a bird? is it a plane?..no, it's a blogger

 

Clark Kent (aka Superman) on quitting the Daily Planet to become a blogger, as reported by the Telegraph: "Why am I the one sounding like a grizzled ink-stained wretch who believes news should be about – I don't know – news?"

 Subtracting Subs

Iliffe News and Media staff memo on plans to scrap subs, as reported by HoldtheFrontPage: “Although there could be some reduction in head count if our proposal to eliminate the sub editing role is confirmed, it is important to recognise that the overall aim of our strategy is to increase our audience through the delivery of high quality content.”

Bashing Boris

Max Hastings in the Daily Mail: "If the day ever comes that Boris Johnson becomes tenant of Downing Street, I shall be among those packing my bags for a new life in Buenos Aires or suchlike, because it means that Britain has abandoned its last pretensions to be a serious country."

Johnston on journalists

Boris Johnson in the Telegraph: "You can’t 'strike journalists off”, as if they were accountants or lawyers or gynaecologists. They aren’t a profession: they are a great pulsating rabble of people who are distinguished only by our desire – I will not say our ability – to write any old thing for any kind of ephemeral publication. Anyone can be a journalist. You just have to start a blog, break a few stories, and bingo, you are a household name." 

Print takes gold at the Olympics

Grey Cardigan in Press Gazette's Journalism Weekly on the Olympics:  "Those Geeks might sneer at what they call the Dead Tree Industry, but London 2012 provided a superb example of how grubby old newsprint can still work its magic. The Times deserves a special mention for that excellent series of wraps, but the 28-page supplements in the Sunday Times were an absolute joy. Superb job, chaps."

The demise of The Dandy

Simon Heffer on MailOnline on the demise of The Dandy, Britain's oldest comic which went online only in December: "Children from eight to 80 felt a kick from the hob-nailed boot of harsh reality yesterday. The Dandy, a staple of so many British childhoods, and the nation’s oldest surviving comic, is on the brink of closure...After all these years, so much of the D.C. Thomson world has passed into our culture: a world in which children waged a constant battle of spiteless amusement against their elders, and got nothing worse than a clip round the ear for it, seemed to sum up not just a more black-and-white approach to life, but came close to representing that most elusive of qualities, the true nature of Britishness." 

Simon O'Neill ‏ on Twitter: "Working at Derby Telegraph in 90s was like being in a real life edition of The Dandy. Both now things of the past."

Don't do what I did

Joshua Rozenberg, writing on the Legal Cheek blog: "As a job it is very easy, which is why so many people go into journalism when they have nothing better to do. What’s difficult now, though, is getting a job in journalism. With newspapers in rapid decline and the electronic media paying little or nothing to contributors, the chances of making a living out of it – unless you started when I did – are vanishingly small. So my advice for anyone seeking to follow in my footsteps is: don’t."

Flying the flag

Joanna Hindley, special advisor to Culture Secretary Maria Miller, to a Telegraph journalist investigating the expenses of her boss: “Maria has obviously been having quite a lot of editors’ meetings around Leveson at the moment. So I am just going to kind of flag up that connection for you to think about.”

Pincered by the police and press

Andrew Mitchell in the Sunday Times:  "The dangerous and corrupt relationship between the police and certain newspapers has been exposed again and again during the Leveson inquiry. Now I have had a taste of how extraordinarily powerless an individual is when trapped between the pincers of the police on one side and the press on the other. If this can happen to a senior government minister, then what chance does a youth in Brixton or Handsworth have?"

On Yer Marx

Karl Marx on press freedom, as quoted by Mick Hume at the Free Speech Network launch event: "You cannot enjoy the advantages of a free press without putting up with its inconveniences. You cannot pluck the rose without its thorns!"

Media Quotes of the Week: You've been Levesoned

Lord Justice Leveson (top) in his Report: "The evidence placed before the Inquiry has demonstrated, beyond any doubt, that there have been far too many occasions over the last decade and more (itself said to have been better than previous decades) when these responsibilities, on which the public so heavily rely, have simply been ignored. There have been too many times when, chasing the story, parts of the press have acted as if its own code, which it wrote, simply did not exist. This has caused real hardship and, on occasion, wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people whose rights and liberties have been disdained. This is not just the famous but ordinary members of the public, caught up in events (many of them, truly tragic) far larger than they could cope with but made much, much worse by press behaviour that, at times, can only be described as outrageous."

Lord Justice Leveson in his Report: "In order to give effect to the incentives that I have outlined, it is essential that there should be legislation to underpin the independent self-regulatory system
and facilitate its recognition in legal processes."

Lord Justice Leveson in his Report: "Finally, I was struck by the evidence of journalists who felt that they might be put under pressure to do things that were unethical or against the code. I therefore suggest that the new independent self-regulatory body should establish a whistle-blowing hotline and encourage its members to ensure that journalists’ contracts include a conscience clause protecting them if they refuse."

Lord Justice Leveson in his Report: “In relation to regional and local newspapers, I do not make a specific recommendation but I suggest that the Government should look urgently as what action it might be able take to help safeguard the ongoing viability of this much valued and important part of the British press. It is clear to me that local, high-quality and trusted newspapers are good for our communities, our identity and our democracy and play an important social role.”

David Cameron in the House of Commons, as reported by BBC News, after saying he had "serious misgivings" about independent self regulation of the press being underpinned by law because: "We would have crossed the Rubicon of writing elements of press regulation into the law of the land, we should be wary of legislation that has potential to infringe free speech and a free press."

The Daily Mail in a leader:  "To his enormous credit, however, David Cameron sees this report for what it is — a mortal threat to the British people’s historic right to know. If he prevails in protecting that right, with the help of like-minded freedom lovers in the Commons and Lords, he will earn a place of honour in our history."

The Financial Times in a leader: "While there may be merit in a grand bargain that trades the incentives to participate for some measure of statutory underpinning, the idea of handing oversight power to Ofcom is wrong-headed. Ofcom is charged with regulating television broadcasters that have a legal obligation to impartiality. It reports directly to government. This is a step down the road towards state licensing of a press that, of course, has no obligation to provide balance."

The Daily Telegraph in a leader: "The industry must act quickly to set up an independent regulatory body that fulfils the principles put forward by Leveson. If it does that, then Mr Cameron, Mr Clegg, Mr Miliband and Parliament should be able to stay on the right side of the Rubicon."

The Guardian in a leader: "While Lords Hunt and Black have done useful work in trying to draw up a reformed version of the discredited PCC, it is not clear that they are now the right people to be trying to build a consensus among a diverse group of editors, publishers and proprietors. Their past efforts confusingly married consultation with lobbying and they badly misjudged what would be acceptable, either to the inquiry or to Westminster."

The Sun in a leader: "We understand why phone hacking victims want newspapers muzzled. But anger and the desire for revenge are not a basis on which to destroy 300 years of Press freedom. That is why we applaud David Cameron’s courage in resisting Lord Leveson’s call for a new law, saying he has “serious concerns and misgivings” over legal underpinning for a new regulator. Parliament must now give the Press the chance to respond to Lord Leveson with its own proposals."

We understand why phone hacking victims want newspapers muzzled. But anger and the desire for revenge are not a basis on which to destroy 300 years of Press freedom.
That is why we applaud David Cameron’s courage in resisting Lord Leveson’s call for a new law, saying he has “serious concerns and misgivings” over legal underpinning for a new regulator. Parliament must now give the Press the chance to respond to Lord Leveson with its own proposals.


Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/sun_says/4508014/The-Sun-says-Fooled-again.html#ixzz2Dh0rhX3h

Adrian Jeakings, president of the Newspaper Society and chief executive of Archant, in a statement: "Local newspapers have always been vehemently opposed to any form of statutory involvement or underpinning in the regulation of the press, including the oversight by Ofcom proposed in the report. This would impose an unacceptable regulatory burden on the industry, potentially inhibiting freedom of speech and the freedom to publish."

Liberty’s director Shami Chakrabarti, one of  the panel of assessors who advised Lord Justice Leveson, in a statement: “Leveson’s main proposal makes sense for the public, press and politicians alike. The press sets up a robust body – independent of Government and serving editors – and earns legal protections from needless challenges in court. The public gets confidence of greater access to justice and redress when things go wrong. What nobody needs and Liberty cannot support is any last-resort compulsory statutory press regulation – coming at too high a price in a free society.”

US-based Committee to Protect Journalists executive director Joel Simon in a statement: "A media regulatory body anchored by statute cannot be described as voluntary. Moreover, adopting statutory regulation would undermine press freedom in the U.K. and give legitimacy to governments around the world that routinely silence journalists through such controls."

Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph: "In the nearly 20 years in which I edited various papers, including this one, I became ever more strongly convinced of two things. The first was that statutory regulation of the press was a bad idea. The second was that the self-regulation of the press was little better than a farce."

Times editor James Harding [£]: "Let’s not tiptoe around the problem. The British press has, on occasion, abused its power and influence, trampled on the feelings of the vulnerable and, sometimes with scant justification, intruded into people’s privacy. These excesses have, I believe, been the exception, not the stock-in-trade of Fleet Street. But they have undermined the reputation of journalists and destroyed confidence in regulation of the press."

David Yelland ‏@davidyelland on Twitter: "Will this week see the end of a free press? No. We will find a way through the woods so long as editors show humility and less arrogance."

The Observer in an editorial:  "We may have to accept that the price of press freedom inexorably involves sometimes getting things wrong – as well as some right. The question we have to ask is: if we choke that freedom away by law, and then by adding more and more law for every mistake, what freedom will there be left?"

Dan Sabbagh in the Guardian: "There is, behind the scenes, an almost comic attempt to get all the newspaper groups to sign up to some sort of statement on regulatory reform. But it would be easier to get 10 cats to sashay down Oxford Street in a straight line."

Spectator editor Fraser Nelson in a leader: "If the press agrees a new form of self-regulation, perhaps contractually binding this time, we will happily take part. But we would not sign up to anything enforced by government. If such a group is constituted we will not attend its meetings, pay its fines nor heed its menaces. We would still obey the (other) laws of the land. But to join any scheme which subordinates press to parliament would be a betrayal of what this paper has stood for since its inception in 1828."

Emily Bell on the Guardian's Comment is Free: "Leveson deals with the nefarious ways of publishing personal information; it deals with the fallout of incestuous relationships run from the heart of government; and it deals with the personal cost of people crushed by journalism-as-showbusiness. What it cannot deal with is the regulation of the press in the 21st century."

Non-Leveson Quote of the Week:

Lord Patten on what the BBC Trust conveyed to George Entwistle, as reported by the BBC:  "We are not urging you to go. But we are not urging you to stay."

[£] = paywall

So, Leveson does believe in a 'conscience clause'

It seems that Lord Justice Leveson has listened to the NUJ's calls for a "conscience clause" in contracts to protect journalists from being sacked if they refuse to act unethically in pursuit of a story.

He says in his Report  published today: "Finally, I was struck by the evidence of journalists who felt that they might be put under pressure to do things that were unethical or against the code. I therefore suggest that the new independent self-regulatory body should establish a whistle-blowing hotline and encourage its members to ensure that journalists’ contracts include a conscience clause protecting them if they refuse."

In her evidence to Leveson,  NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet (pictured) gave examples of bullying of staff in some newsrooms.

Stanistreet said in a letter to NUJ members yesterday: “From the outset of the Leveson inquiry, we demanded a conscience clause to safeguard journalists who object to being made to act unethically in the pursuit of a story. The industry – both the Press Complaints Commission and the Society of Editors – has repeatedly refused to bring in a conscience clause, despite the Home Affairs Select Committee backing this NUJ’s campaign as long ago as 2003.

“We highlighted the vital role a trade union plays in any workplace, and how in journalism the NUJ plays a role in maintaining standards and standing up for ethical journalism, as well as the bread and butter industrial issues of pay and conditions.

"We explained to Lord Leveson that an NUJ workplace chapel is not simply the vehicle for putting together pay claims and campaigning for better terms and conditions it is also the place where members can raise issues of concern on ethical matters, on staffing levels, and on bullying and editorial pressure within their workplace.”

Stanistreet said in a statement:  “From the outset of the Leveson inquiry, we demanded a conscience clause to safeguard journalists who object to being made to act unethically in the pursuit of a story.

“The NUJ has been campaigning for years for a conscience clause in contracts of employment and we are delighted that Lord Justice Leveson has listened to the voice of journalists.

“The NUJ will now do all it can to ensure that when journalists stand up for a principle of journalistic ethics they have a contractual protection against being dismissed.

“Now is the time to build a solid framework that gives journalists the confidence and the security to put their head above the parapet and take a stand for ethical journalism.

“A journalist should always have the right to refuse assignments and no journalist should be disciplined or suffer detriment to their career for asserting his or her right to act ethically.

“The new independent self-regulatory body should ensure that journalists’ contracts include a conscience clause.

“The NUJ welcomes Lord Justice Leveson’s support for a free press and independent regulation of the press - independent of both government and of the industry.

“We’re also pleased that the recommendations include civic society involvement and the recommendation that the new body needs an independent chair and board appointed in a fair and transparent process. The board should include the voice of journalists, through the NUJ. We explained to Lord Leveson, in our unique position as the media trade union recognised by the inquiry as a core participant in his hearings, that NUJ workplace organisation is not simply the vehicle for putting together pay claims and campaigning for jobs, terms and conditions. It is also the means through which journalists can raise issues of concern on ethical matters, bullying and editorial pressure.

“The NUJ supports the recommendation that the new body should accept third party complaints, provide incentives and tackle prejudicial or pejorative references to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or physical or mental illness or disability.

“It is disappointing that Lord Leveson has not made recommendations in relation to media ownership and plurality - it is significant that the unfolding scandal at News International happened in a company with a 35.15% share of the market and in a workplace where the NUJ has been effectively blocked by Rupert Murdoch for years.

“The NUJ will now look at the details of the report.”

• See also,  Tony Harcup: 'How a conscience clause could fill the ethical vacuum in the newsroom'. 
• Pic. Michelle Stanistreet (Jon Slattery)

Lord Justice Leveson to press: 'Don't close ranks'

Lord Justice Leveson outlining his inquiry into media ethics urged the press today not to "close ranks" and suggest that the problems highlighted by the phone hacking affair were only down to a group of News of the World journalists.

In a prepared statement he said: "It may be tempting for a number of people to close ranks and suggest that the problem is or was local to a group of journalists then operating at the News of the World but I would encourage all to take a wider picture of the public good and help grapple with the width and depth of the problem."

He said the "focus of the inquiry is the culture practices and ethics of the press in the context of the latter's relationship with the public, the police and politicians."

Lord Justice Leveson added that in September he would be holding "a series of seminars on the ethics of journalism and the practices and pressures of investigative journalism".

He added he would later hold seminars on press relationships with the police, politicians and the political process.

Lord Justice Leveson said he would "strive" to complete his inquiry after 12 months but said this would not happen "at all cost". The scope of the inquiry has been extended to include broadcasting and social media as well as the press.