Jo Carr, the BBC's head of current affairs, on BBC News after a Panorama documentary team were threatened following a programme on the links between world boxing and a crime boss: "The BBC places the utmost priority on the safety of our teams, whose journalism plays a vital role in a free society. It is despicable and intolerable if thugs think they can muzzle a free press through intimidation. We will continue to throw light into even the murkiest of corners."
- International Federation of Journalists general secretary, Anthony Bellanger, in a statement: “We stand in solidarity with the BBC journalist threatened and with all the documentary crew. We reject all forms of violence and intimidation against journalists, by whomever". The journalist and his family are said to have gone into hiding.
openDemocracy reports: "More than a dozen current and former national newspaper editors have signed an openDemocracy public letter calling for MPs to urgently investigate the British government's handling of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.The rare show of unity from traditional rivals across the British press comes in response to an openDemocracy investigation which revealed details of a secretive unit inside Michael Gove’s Cabinet Office, described as 'Orwellian' by the head of the National Union of Journalists. A shadow cabinet minister has accused the unit, known as the ‘Clearing House’, of 'blacklisting' journalists. It is also said to have blocked the release of sensitive FOI requests."
- The Times [£] noted in a leader the openDemocracy letter: "Also calls for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which oversees the Act, to be made truly independent by making it accountable to and funded by parliament rather than the government. The Act should also be amended so that failure to respond to a request within 20 working days can trigger the right to appeal to the ICO. These would be important steps to boost public trust in the state. A government led by two prominent former journalists in Mr Johnson and Mr Gove ought to appreciate the urgency of this task. "
Robert Shrimsley on Twitter: "Just one observation on Jackie Weaver. If more journalists had ever spent any time covering parish councils (them were the days) they would be a lot less surprised at the simmering hatred, standing on ceremony and obsession with standing orders."
Max Hastings on Robert Maxwell in The Times [£] : "Maxwell wielded lawyers and Britain’s iniquitous libel laws as cudgels with which to silence critics. Those who fought back, notably including Tom Bower and Private Eye, deserve memorial applause for their courage and persistence in crying from the rooftops that the 'Bouncing Czech' was just that."
GB News chairman Andrew Neil in the Express: "I believe our national conversation has become too metropolitan, too southern and too middle-class. Some journalists and commentators seem too confident that their liberal-left assumptions must surely be shared by every sensible person in the land. But many of those same sensible people are fed up.They feel left out and unheard. There’s a restlessness, a sense that they’re being talked down to; that much of the media no longer reflects their values or shares their concerns.GB News is aimed squarely at those people."
President Biden in his first speech at the State Department: "We believe a free press isn't an adversary, rather it's essential. The free press is essential to the health of a democracy."
Former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt in the Los Angeles Times: "When I defended the call for Biden in the Arizona election, I became a target of murderous rage from consumers who were furious at not having their views confirmed. Having been cosseted by self-validating coverage for so long, many Americans now consider any news that might suggest that they are in error or that their side has been defeated as an attack on them personally. The lie that Trump won the 2020 election wasn’t nearly as much aimed at the opposing party as it was at the news outlets that stated the obvious, incontrovertible fact."
The Sunday Times [£] in a leader: "A newspaper’s house style is like a good foundation garment. Observers should not notice it, but it is the basis on which much else depends; and changing it can be a bit of a performance. So it is worthy of note that our sister title, The Times, has altered its policy on honorifics. While Lord Thingummy still receives his title on the first mention in any article, thereafter he is plain old Thingummy. For us commoners, too, the Thunderer is forgoing its usual sprinkling of Mr, Mrs and Ms and calling us by our surnames. It’s a good decision. The litany of Lords and Ladies, Sirs and Dames smacks of Heepish toadying. Surnames are straightforward and egalitarian, and we congratulate The Times for its move to modernity. Our more eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that this has been the order of the day at another title for many years, but we shall resist the urge to say which one. Sibling rivalry is a terrible thing."
Tom Whipple, science correspondent of The Times [£] in an article in the paper on his early days: "I did not start at The Times as a science writer. There is, instead, a traditional role for the youngest male in the building...It is, loosely, 'humiliation correspondent'. I was sent to swingers’ clubs and superheated saunas. I ate grasshoppers one week; I spent another living off army ration packs. During one overly enthusiastic breakdance I accidentally showed Arlene Phillips my testicles.The one unique selling point I had compared to established journalists was that, unlike them, I had no attachment to my dignity... In an especially purple patch over a two-month period I wore mantihose, manscara and a mengagement ring. A photograph of me trialling fart-proof pants — looking coquettishly over my shoulder while eating baked beans and wearing an adult nappy — became the masthead for a regular column in The Sun titled 'embarrassing health problems' [see pic]. "
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