Media Quotes of the Week: From aerial abduction of journalist is an act of 'state thuggery' to the Bashir scandal is being exploited by BBC haters

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, in a statement on the abduction of journalist Roman Protasevich who was removed from a flight and detained by the Belarusian authorities after the plane was instructed to divert to Minsk: "This is breath-taking behaviour and demonstrates just how far President Lukashenko will go to in order to silence journalists and those critical of his regime. This act of state thuggery cannot be allowed to go unchallenged – the international community must do more to stand up to this unacceptable behaviour from a regime set on dismantling press freedom and instilling fear in journalists in Belarus."

• There are 29 journalists currently detained in Belarus

Boris Johnson on Twitter: "The video of Roman Protasevich makes for deeply distressing viewing. As a journalist and a passionate believer in freedom of speech I call for his immediate release. Belarus' actions will have consequences."

Dominic Cummings at the select committee hearing on Covid claimed he had wanted to move Downing Street away from a culture of being a "press answering service" and reacting to what was in the papers every day: "The media realised I was trying to massively diminish their influence and they wanted to get rid of me." 

Max Hastings in The Times [£]: "As long as the pandemic persists, which seems likely to be many moons yet, so will the invisibility of other issues and of lesser politicians. Johnson’s licence to address the nation at will, without facing tough scrutiny from a shamefully tame media that defers to the national emergency, confers a huge advantage upon him."

Richard Pendelbury in the Daily Mail on the death of Max Mosley: "He used his fortune to try to erase the [News of the World] orgy story and images from internet search engines — a Sisyphean task. He also waged a bitter war against elements of the print media. In this campaign he backed draconian new laws to curb what he saw as the excesses of the Press and his opponents regarded as fundamental freedoms. His was the money — more than £500,000 — behind the private office of Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson. A Mosley family trust even donated millions to fund a new Press regulator, Impress, hoping its existence would trigger the imposition of ruinous fines against his Fleet Street critics. Not least among those critics was this newspaper, which in 2018 published a series of investigative articles showing Mosley had misled, if not lied to, the court at his privacy trial about his neo-Fascist past. Labour dropped his funding like a hot brick. Mosley once again summoned his lawyers, this time with no success. The articles were accurate in every shocking detail."

Alan Rusbridger in the Observer: "This has been a bleak week for the BBC. The Bashir saga is shaming. But we can’t allow the future of the corporation to be defined by its enemies. And the prime minister would do well to approach any questions about journalistic ethics with a degree of humility."

Janice Turner in The Times [£]: "Journalists having fainting fits about Bashir know that in his stealth, cunning and, above all, plausibility he is the quintessence of our trade. Bashir lied, forged, deceived; but such methods have exposed monsters. Journalism encompasses great integrity and deep shadiness, sometimes in the same byline. Bashir could convince Diana her closest confidantes were selling stories to newspapers only because so many already were."

The Times [£] in a leader: "Another inquiry is now needed to answer the many questions excluded by his tightly drawn terms of reference. These include the inexplicable decision by the BBC to rehire Mr Bashir in 2016 and the way in which the BBC treated whistleblowers. Only by acting with complete transparency can the BBC expect to win back public trust."

The Guardian in a leader: "An institutional reluctance to confront hard choices may indeed have been part of the problem when Mr Bashir came up with his bombshell interview in 1995 too. But the BBC is far too important for that failing to be used as an excuse to bash or trash a corporation that should be defended and cherished, and whose hallmark, as Lord Dyson says, is its high standards."

David Aaronovitch on Twitter:  "I hold no brief for Martin Bashir, but there is an industrial level revision of history going on about whether Diana 'would have given that interview' if he hadn't deceived her brother. Lord Dyson makes clear in para 1 his view that she would."

Lionel Barber on Twitter: "The issue is not whether Diana would have given the interview. It’s Bashir’s deep deception, the half-assed BBC investigation into the case, Bashir’s exoneration and later rehiring by Tony Hall. Colossal failure of editorial judgment all round now exploited by enemies of BBC."

 David Yelland on Twitter: "How dare Boris Johnson, himself fired from The Times, for making up quotes, get on his high horse on journalism ethics: Bashir is a disaster but it is being used by BBC haters including Johnson and his luddite mates...All those in glass houses, editors past and present, should pause before attacking the BBC and remember Bashir, then, was typical of our culture. The Beeb is still a national asset, a prized thing, a force for good."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From families condemn News of the World for paying 'Babes in the Wood' murderer to mapping the newsiest town in Britain

The families of murdered schoolgirls Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in a statement released by Sussex Police after Jennifer Johnson, ex-girlfriend of convicted Babes in the Wood killer Russell Bishop, was found guilty of lying at his 1987 trial in which he was acquitted: “The now defunct ‘News of the World’ also provided encouragement for Johnson to lie. As a key witness in Bishop’s 1987 trial, she lied knowing that there would be a huge financial reward if Bishop received two acquittals for the double child murders. He did indeed receive the wrongful acquittals. The News of the World got their stories. The perpetrators got their payday. Our two families were devastated again after those verdicts, yet on the same evening, Johnson and the Bishops celebrated with a funded champagne dinner at the Hilton Hotel. They should all hang their heads in shame. They all had their part to play. They all have blood on their hands."

• During the trial, the prosecution claimed Johnson stood to benefit from Bishop selling his story as "an innocent man" to the News of the World for £15,000. The Court of Appeal quashed the 1987 acquittals and Bishop was found guilty of murdering the girls after a second trial at the Old Bailey in 2018. Bishop was already in prison. He was jailed for attacking a seven-year-old girl three years after the acquittals. Johnson was jailed for six years for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

Lord Dyson in his report into Martin Bashir's Panorama interview with Princess Diana criticises the way the BBC investigated allegations that fake documents were used: "The investigation conducted by Lord Hall and Mrs Sloman was flawed and woefully ineffective... The answers given by the BBC to specific questions by the press were evasive. And by failing to mention on any news programme the fact that it had investigated what Mr Bashir had done and the outcome of the investigations, the BBC fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark."

BBC director general Tim Davie said in a statement: "Although the report states that Diana, Princess of Wales, was keen on the idea of an interview with the BBC, it is clear that the process for securing the interview fell far short of what audiences have a right to expect. We are very sorry for this. Lord Dyson has identified clear failings."

Prince William in a statement: "It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said. The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others. It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her. But what saddens me most, is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived. She was failed not just by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions."

Bashir, who quit the BBC on health grounds before the publication of the investigation, said in a statement, reported by the Evening Standard: "This is the second time that I have willingly fully co-operated with an investigation into events more than 25 years ago. I apologised then, and I do so again now, over the fact that I asked for bank statements to be mocked up. It was a stupid thing to do and was an action I deeply regret. But I absolutely stand by the evidence I gave a quarter of a century ago, and again more recently. I also reiterate that the bank statements had no bearing whatsoever on the personal choice by Princess Diana to take part in the interview."

BBC News media editor Amol Rajan: "This report will not just injure the BBC, but scar it. And it should be granted that though it shows the historic failures of BBC journalists, it also shows the power and merit of journalism. It is thanks to determined reporters, not least at the Daily Mail group and the Sunday Times, that we today have the first full account of the real story behind the most remarkable - and arguably consequential - interview in television history."

The Committee to Protect Journalists' Middle East representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado in a statement, after Israeli planes destroyed the Al-Jawhara building in Gaza which housed the offices of more than a dozen media outlets, including AP and Al Jazeera: “It is utterly unacceptable for Israel to bomb and destroy the offices of media outlets and endanger the lives of journalists, especially since Israeli authorities know where those media outlets are housed. Israeli authorities must ensure that journalists can do their jobs safely without fear of being injured or killed.”

Alan Rusbridger on Twitter: "Sometimes, when Prince Harry says sensible things (eg this morning about parenting), it would be nice if journalists discussed what he said rather than whether he has pissed off the Royals or Meghan put him up to it."

New Yorker journalist Patrick Radden Keefe asked in an Observer interview if he had been intimidated by dozens of letters and emails from lawyers representing some of the Sackler family while writing Empire of Pain, his new book about the opioid scandal in the US:  "Of course, it was in the back of my mind, it had to be. But I wasn’t intimidated. On the contrary, I was emboldened to be honest with you. In part, because they don’t do that sort of thing unless you’re on the right track. I thought a little bit about my colleague, Ronan Farrow, who had a similar experience when he tried to write about Harvey Weinstein. These are the sort of tactics these types of people employ. And they work until they don’t. And with Weinstein, they worked for a long time until they didn’t work any more. And the truth caught up with him."

BBC's Jon Sopel on covering the U.S. after Trump, in an interview with Press Gazette: “If you’re a journalist, and you need your daily heroin fix of being on the news, Joe Biden ain’t great. Because a lot of it is just the smooth whirring of the machine of government. It’s pretty dull. Whereas with Donald Trump, it was fireworks every day. So from that point of view, it seems a much quieter, stiller place.”

Matt Dathan in The Times [£]: "Spreading fake news on behalf of a hostile state like Russia or China could become a crime under government plans to overhaul the Official Secrets Act. Priti Patel, the home secretary, has published proposals to create a number of new offences to modernise Britain’s 'outdated' laws to combat evolving threats. The changes would also increase prison sentences for breaches of the Official Secrets Act."

Kevin Bradford on Twitter: "A map of nowhere - but somewhere only #news stories happen."

Paul Wiltshire on Twitter: "I do love a map. Particularly if it's of the newsiest town in the land. Happy memories of covering it - and training other people to cover it."

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Quotes of the Week: Politicians and social media platforms must act to stop abuse of journalists to English libel law used to threaten reporters outside UK investigating financial crime and corruption

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, after a survey of NUJ members showed many had suffered online abuse, threats and physical attacks: "It is wholly unacceptable and outrageous that NUJ members are being routinely abused, harassed and intimidated in the course of doing their job. Such abuse and harassment goes beyond the awful personal impact - it also risks silencing journalists and censoring debates. Those under attack - disproportionately women and black and minority ethnic journalists - admit to thinking twice about what they say or publish, with self-censorship a natural self-protective reflex. It is clear that those in public office, especially our elected politicians, have a leadership role in improving parlous levels of public discourse. We need an end to the dismissal of journalism as fake news... And it’s time social media platforms did more to deter and stop abuse."

Key findings of the survey include:

• 51% of respondents said they had experienced online abuse in the last year
• 55% of respondents said the abuse had affected their wellbeing and mental health
• 48% said the abuse had made them fearful or anxious
• 15% of respondents said harassment had made them consider leaving the industry

The Times [£] in a leader on the Martin Bashir interview with Princess Diana and the row over fake documents said to have helped secure it: "Tim Davie, the new director-general, has apologised to Lord Spencer and the BBC says it will investigate any 'substantive new information'. It should go further and hold a formal inquiry. It is already clear that Bashir’s behaviour was a journalistic disgrace. The question must be whether others at the BBC knew this already and covered it up. Mr Davie should be keen to find the truth. If he does not, others will."

Younes Mjahed, president of the International Federation of Journalists, in a statement to mark the UN's International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on 2 November: “We cannot remain silent when the level of impunity across the world is so shockingly high and the masterminds maintain their power because they can escape justice. Democracy requires that the authors of crimes and intimidations be duly brought to justice and pay the price for silencing those who are fighting for the truth."

A spokesman for the Sun, quoted by The Times [£], after actor Johnny Depp lost his libel battle over claims he physically and sexually abused his ex-wife Amber Heard: “The Sun has stood up and campaigned for the victims of domestic abuse for over twenty years. Domestic abuse victims must never be silenced and we thank the judge for his careful consideration and thank Amber Heard for her courage in giving evidence to the court.”

The BBC's new social media guidance for journalists: "Expressions of opinion on social media can take many forms – from straightforward tweets, posts or updates, sharing or liking content, following particular accounts or using campaigning or political hashtags. You should consider carefully every comment before posting... Avoid ‘virtue signalling’ – retweets, likes or joining online campaigns to indicate a personal view, no matter how apparently worthy the cause."

BBC Newsdesk and Planning editor Neil Henderson on Twitter: "Virtue signalling. Well I’m proud to be sacked for any opposition I may express to racism and hate."

Christian Broughton, managing director and former editor of the Independent on Robert Fisk, who has died aged 74: “Fearless, uncompromising, determined and utterly committed to uncovering the truth and reality at all costs, Robert Fisk was the greatest journalist of his generation. The fire he lit at the Independent will burn on.”

Jeremy Corbyn on Facebook before he was suspended by the Labour Party: “One antisemite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media."

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw in TheTimes [£]: "With the expansion of virtual hearings and remote access in response to the pandemic, you do not have to be at court to follow some proceedings. If the audio or video link is reliable you can cover cases from an office or bedroom. I expect that desktop court reporting will become a permanent feature of journalism, but without being there, reporters risk missing the vital off-the-cuff conversations with officials, lawyers and other participants that aid understanding of the legal process, build trust and prevent mistakes."

Rachel Cooke in the Observer interviewing ex-Financial Times editor Lionel Barber: "Even as I’m interviewing him, he keeps telling me how interviews should be done."

Susan Coughtrie, project director at the Foreign Policy Centre, on its survey examining pressures faced by journalists uncovering crime and corruption around the world: “Investigative journalists uncovering financial crime and corruption are being subject to a significant amount of risks and threats, which has a chilling effect on their ability to continue to bring crucial matters of public interest to light. Particularly alarming is the level and frequency, as highlighted by our survey, of legal threats being sent to journalists all over the world. The UK is the highest international source of these legal challenges – almost as high as EU countries and the US combined – which points to a clear need for further review to prevent potential vexatious misuse of the UK legal system.”

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