Media Quotes of the Week: From how the Assad regime has failed to silence Marie Colvin to why you should never evacuate the sub-editors' desk

The Sunday Times [£] in a leader: "The Assad regime thought it could silence Marie with one foul act. It was wrong. A documentary, Under the Wire, chronicles Paul’s [photographer Paul Conroy] last days in Homs with Marie. A biography, In Extremis, has been written by Lindsey Hilsum, the Channel 4 News war reporter. A Private War, starring the Hollywood actress Rosamund Pike as Marie, will open in cinemas this month. Even in death Marie’s reporting continues to shame Assad. She represents the very best of her profession and we are proud of her legacy."

Judge Amy Jackson of the US district court for the District of Columbia, as quoted by the Guardian,  declared Marie Colvin was “specifically targeted because of her profession, for the purpose of silencing those reporting on the growing opposition movement in the country. [The] murder of journalists acting in their professional capacity could have a chilling effect on reporting such events worldwide. A targeted murder of an American citizen, whose courageous work was not only important, but vital to our understanding of war zones and of wars generally, is outrageous, and therefore a punitive damages award that multiples the impact on the responsible state is warranted.” 

• Judge Jackson ordered the Syrian regime to pay $300m dollars (£228m) in punitive damages.

The Times [£]: in leader "The Assad family remain ensconced in Damascus, but the Colvin family’s victory is far from pyrrhic. Extensive family assets have been frozen in Britain, the United States and elsewhere for many years. Across numerous jurisdictions, they can and should be seized...Yesterday’s ruling marks the first legal acknowledgment that the Syrian government took active, calculated steps to intimidate, harass and ultimately murder those who sought to inform the world of what they were doing. Alongside punitive damages and a criminal prosecution, it could, and must, lead to a change in international law."

The Observer in a leader: "The premeditated murder of Colvin should now also form a part of the ongoing UN-led criminal investigations of Assad. The UN must designate the deliberate killing of a reporter as a war crime."

Mathew Ingram in the Columbia Journalism Review: "Can a company that became a titan based on its understanding of how to manufacture social virality metrics change its spots, and figure out how to build a sustainable business based on things like donations, events, and e-commerce? At one point, BuzzFeed seemed like the antithesis of traditional media companies who were trying to move from print to digital. But now the former superstar has its own transformation to make, and it appears to be struggling just as much as the ancien regime it was hoping to replace."

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet, quoted by the International Federation of Journalists: “The sheer scale of these cuts is sad to see. It’s a swingeing blow to morale in the newsroom and a far cry from where staff were told things would be after major redundancies a year ago, which were billed as setting the company up for the future. That staff are going through this again so soon raises questions that need to be addressed across digital publishing, about future strategy and the importance of long term investment, rather than unrealistic expectations of short term returns. It is a real shame to see BuzzFeed choose to lose another large number of skilled and experienced digital journalists.”

Emily Bell in The Observer: "The future of journalism will generally be smaller and more challenging in the short term and remains uncertain in the long term. However, the problem now is so clear that even the most advanced digital thinkers can see it: a digital free market for journalism doesn’t work."

Matthew Garrahan in the Financial Times: "There are bright spots amid the gloom. Appetite for news remains healthy: just ask anyone who has devoured coverage about the latest Brexit negotiations or the latest travails of Donald Trump. The quality of investigative reporting on these ongoing sagas bears comparison with the best journalism of recent decades."

Verified account

Ex-Sun editor  David Yelland @davidyelland on Twitter: "Tony Gallagher, the current Editor of The Sun, is far more responsible for the Brexit disaster than Leo Varadkar, who he attacks again today - on a page of half truths and no truths."

Jay Elwes @JayElwes on the Sunday Times splash headline on Twitter: "An old subbing point from way back - if you “evacuate” a place, then you remove its inhabitants. If you “evacuate” a person, you give them an enema."

• As backed up by two sub editors in this episode of The Wire 

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Quotes of the Week: Snowden snooper scoop to why punch-ups at dog shows are national news

Guardian Edward Snowden scoop makes four splashes

 NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in the Guardian: "I know the media likes to personalise political debates, and I know the government will demonise me."

Matthew Ingram on PaidContent: "The fact that both Greenwald and the Guardian are to some extent 'outsiders' may have helped them land what could be one of the biggest national-security stories since Watergate. And the stories — a series that Greenwald says has only just begun — will undoubtedly burnish the Guardian‘s reputation in the U.S., not to mention its web traffic."

Rod Logan in a letter to the Guardian:  "It is good to know that our email letters to the Guardian that do not make it into your paper are at least being read by somebody, somewhere, sometime."

Roy Greenslade on his MediaGuardian blog: "The breaking of the Snowden revelations story must surely put The Guardian in line for a Pulitzer, making it the first British newspaper to win the award."

Ben Brogan in the Telegraph on Edward Snowden: "A close reading of his manifesto, with his talk of a “federation of secret law” ruling the world, CIA hit-squads, surveillance nets on the verge of activation and his right to act against a duly constituted, democratically elected government, suggests he has spent too much time watching Hollywood DVDs on his laptop and studying conspiracy theory forums on the web. Whether he is naive, deluded or malicious, he has generated a drama that is more about the fantastical steps he took to put himself beyond America’s grasp than the content of the classified information he released."

Boris Johnson in the Telegraph on the NSA allegations: "I think if I were Shami Chakrabarti, or my old chum David Davis, I might get thoroughly aerated at this point; and I have some sympathy with their general position. But then I am afraid I also have sympathy with our security services, and their very powerful need to use the internet to catch the bad guys – the terrorists, the jihadis, the child porn creeps. There is a trade-off between freedom and security, as Barack Obama rightly says; between the citizen’s right to total internet privacy, and the duty of the state to protect us all from harm."

The Sun apologises to Aliens: "IN an article on Saturday headlined ‘Flying saucers over British Scientology HQ’, we stated “two flat silver discs” were seen “above the Church of Scientology HQ”. Following a letter from lawyers for the Church, we apologise to any alien lifeforms for linking them to Scientologists." 

Grey Cardigan on The Spin Alley: "I was quite interested in the Newspaper Society’s seven-point plan to save the regional publishing industry – and then I actually read it. Dropping opposition to mergers despite monopoly issues, curbing BBC competition, enforced use of local press advertising by government and public bodies, keeping statuary public notices in newspapers, shutting down council newspapers which compete with the local press, tighter copyright enforcement on the content of newspaper websites and maintaining zero-rating on newspaper cover prices. Is this really the best the NS can do? Seven points, every single one of them either defensive or protectionist (although I do agree with a couple of them). No leadership, no innovation, no brilliant ideas… Pathetic, just pathetic."

Peter Preston in the Observer: "The delay in agreeing some formula for press regulation is dangerous on both sides. The press – having written off the PCC as not tough enough – can't bodge along indefinitely with no successor in place. Something, in such a vacuum, is bound to go wrong. It always does. Witness the rather unexpected award of damages to a Tory deputy fundraising chairman complaining about a Sunday Times sting. If newspapers can't provide their own authority together, they may be left to swing separately. And think of what, post-2015, an incoming government with a clear mandate might do then."

Acting Times editor John Witherow ruling out an editorial merger with the Sunday Times [£]: “Fundamental changes are limited by the undertakings and in fact we see no great benefits at this stage from merging much of editorial, though we will keep this under review. It is important as much for commercial reasons as editorial that we keep the characters of the papers separate and this requires different staff in several areas.”

Peter Wright on the deal between Hacked Off and the political parties at the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, as reported by Press Gazette: "I think it has placed the Government in a position where they are trapped with a royal charter proposal and a set of recognition criteria that they know the industry are not going to sign up to. I can quite see that it may be difficult to get things moving again but at some point they do need to be got moving."

Guido Fawkes ‏@GuidoFawkes on Twitter: "Great strategic thinker and master tactician Harriet Harman has devised a plan to force Murdoch to support the Tories. 15% market share cap." 

The Media Blog ‏@TheMediaTweets  on Twitter re-Murdoch divorce: "Hopefully everyone will respect Rupert Murdoch's right to privacy. Pretty sure he'd do the same."

Charles Moore in the Telegraph accusing the national press of being dominated by bad news compared to the local media: "Local papers and broadcasters are unashamedly on the side of the areas they serve. Of course they relish scandals, but they also delight in successes. At flower and dog shows, if local papers are to be believed, rain always 'fails to dampen the spirits'. National papers only really get interested when every exhibit is swept away in a tidal wave or, as happened recently at a dog show in Kent, people start punching one another."

Peter Hirsch posts on Charles Moore's article (above): "Thank you, Charles. Now perhaps you could just post the link to that dog show in Kent?"

[£] = paywall