Thursday 6 June 2019

Media Quotes of the Week: From Trump trusts me to be fair says Piers Morgan to police tell reporter vile online abuse is part of being a public figure



CNN's Brian Stelter @brianstelter on Twitter: "When I asked @PiersMorgan how he has snagged 3 sit-downs with Trump since Inauguration Day, he replied with characteristic thunder: 'He trusts me to be fair, something that so few journalists seem prepared to be about President Trump'."

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Krishnan Guru-Murthy @krishgm on Twitter: "Trump gives interviews to The Sun and Times. Theresa May calls questions only from Sky and the Times. Trump sees Gove privately. There’s a theme. It starts with M and ends with h. And has urdoc in the middle."


NUJ assistant general secretary Seamus Dooley in a statement welcoming the decision of three appeal judges at the High Court in Belfast to quash warrants for the arrest of No Stone Unturned documentary makers Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey: “This is a victory for Trevor and Barry, for the NUJ and for press freedom.The High Court has affirmed the right of journalists to protect confidential sources of information and provided clear and unambiguous directions for the appropriate manner in which the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the courts should behave in seeking to access journalistic material. There can be no shortcuts when it comes to fundamental principles of human rights.”

Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey in a statement, quoted by the Belfast Telegraph: "The police have dropped the case for one reason only: Finally, they accept that by arresting us and raiding our homes and offices, they were the ones that acted unlawfully...The Lord Chief Justice told the court last week that we had no case to answer. We were right to protect our sources. The PSNI put the cudgel in the hands of Durham Constabulary and let them loose on us and on press freedom itself."


Rory Cellan-Jones @ruskin147 on Twitter: "PR emails to ask whether I received her previous email headed: ‘Revealed: Brits’ most desired smart bathroom technology.’Dilemma - should I tell her where I flushed it?"


Roy Greenslade on the Sun's 50th anniversary  in the British Journalism Review"The paper that was once Murdoch's cash cow, providing him with the funds to expand his empire, now cannot generate profits. At the beginning of this year, News UK declared that it had lost £91 million. The game is surely up. It is simply impossible to imagine The Sun lasting a further half-century, or even much beyond Murdoch's death. Murdoch is 88."


Playwright James Graham @mrJamesGraham on Twitter: "So gutting that the Evening Standard is losing its theatre critics @henryhitchings @FionaLondonarts. The arts is one of the very last things we're heavyweights in. Art changes lives. The city's local paper MUST champion it. Its 60yr old theatre award ceremony is hollow without it."


The News Media Association objecting to the Information Commissioners Office Age Appropriate Design draft code:“Unless amended, the draft code published for consultation by the ICO would undermine the news media industry, its journalism and business innovation online. The ICO draft code would require commercial news media publishers to choose between their online news services being devoid of audience or stripped of advertising, with even editorial content subject to ICO judgment and sanction, irrespective of compliance with general law and codes upheld by the courts and relevant regulators."

BBC director of news and current affairs Fran Unsworth in the Observer: "The BBC is trying to report on and analyse an issue of deep complexity that crosses traditional party boundaries. Are we broken? Well, we pick up bruises most days of the week, but that goes with the territory. I don’t see any fractured limbs. Or even a lack of confidence, as your commentators suggest. People have the right to their opinions about the BBC. But don’t mistake them for facts. Yes, we interview people that some might not want to see or hear. That’s never seen as proper journalism, properly carried out. Instead we’re told we’re giving them 'a platform'.”


Guardian readers' editor Paul Chadwick on the difference between those who phone or email the paper and those who write letters: "Emails and phone calls naturally relate mostly to very recently published material and to the most prominent and controversial issues of the day. These communications may be formulated in anger or exasperation, and sent with haste that is evidenced by typos and misspellings. Letter writers are generally different. They mull. The topics they choose often suggest considerable time spent reflecting. And the issues they raise frequently have nothing to do with recent Guardian coverage of news and current affairs."


Amy Fenton, chief reporter of The Mail, Barrow-in-Furness, on HoldTheFrontPage“Over the last 18 months I’ve been subjected to some of the most vile and vociferous abuse on social media solely for doing my job. I’ve been threatened, targeted, belittled and humiliated by mostly anonymous bullies who seem to relish the prospect of hurting and scaring me. During that time I have involved the police on three separate occasions, for what I and my editor believed were legitimate grounds, only to be told that as a ‘public figure’ such abuse has to be expected."

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