Friday 29 April 2011

Quotes of the Week: From gagging journalists to being doorstepped by the man from the Mail


Andrew Marr in the Daily Mail about his privacy injunction: "
I did not come into journalism to go around gagging journalists. Am I embarrassed by it? Yes. Am I uneasy about it? Yes. But at the time there was a crisis in my marriage and I believed there was a young child involved. I also had my own family to think about, and I believed this story was nobody else's business."

Leader in the Independent on super-injunctions:
"Such is the secrecy surrounding super-injunctions that the public simply cannot make a judgement about whether justice is being done. Media organisations are forbidden from reporting not only the details of the case, but the reasons why an individual judge has reached a decision. Justice needs to be open if it is to command public respect. It is hard to see how super-injunctions can be compatible with a transparent legal system."

Telegraph diary on the actor Hugh Bonneville: "The star not merely of Downton, but also of films such as Scenes of a Sexual Nature and Conspiracy of Silence, Bonneville has undoubtedly come a long way since he started out at the National and the RSC in productions of The School for Scandal and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore'."

Stephen Glover in the Independent on the rise and rise of Mail Online:
"I realise, of course, that some people may feel less enthusiastic about Mail Online's global success than I am likely to. But perhaps anyone who wants newspapers to survive and thrive should draw comfort from the apparent debunking of what was until recently received wisdom. It turns out that online newspapers which don't charge can be profitable, and their success need not be at the expense of print."

Roy Greenslade in Media Guardian on NUJ general secretary elect Michelle Stanistreet: "She charmed me too. In October 2007, I resigned from the NUJ after 43 years of membership because I thought the union had responded negatively to the advance of digital media. Stanistreet doesn't mention that fact until we rise from the table after our talk. As a parting shot she says: 'Why don't you come back? Come on, you know you want to.' So, dear readers, I agreed. I have decided to return to the NUJ fold. The new general secretary has secured her first recruit."

NUJ letter to Johnston Press shareholders: "The performance of Johnston Press under John Fry’s stewardship has been unimpressive to say the least. Despite the downturn in the company’s fortunes, Mr Fry enjoyed a 4.3 per cent rise in pay to £1.01million in 2010, on top of this he received an additional 32.5 per cent of his base salary as pension contributions. That’s a £1.18million pay package in total. In return he has failed to develop a clear recovery and growth strategy for the company – something of grave concern to employees, shareholders and the many loyal journalists the company surreally claims not to employ."

Documentary photographer Marc Vallée, one of the founders of
I'm A Photographer Not A Terrorist: "The privatisation of public space is impacting on public photography. Private companies, with the backing of national and local government, are eroding the common law right of the citizen to take a picture in a public place."

Julie Burchill on being doorstepped by the Daily Mail: "When I had an adulterous affair in the 1990s, and the Daily Mail found out and sent a man in a grubby mac to doorstep us at my girl's flat, I actually tapped on his window when he fell asleep in his car outside, all the better to give a fellow hack a fighting chance of going back to the DM with his smutty story."

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