Media Quotes of the Week: From it's all over for hacking prosecutions to is battle to save FoI won?

Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions, in a statement: "The CPS has looked in great detail at the comprehensive files submitted to us by the police, both in relation to corporate liability at News Group Newspapers and against 10 individuals at Mirror Group Newspapers for alleged phone hacking. After a thorough analysis, we have decided there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of a conviction and therefore no further action will be taken in any of these cases. There has been considerable public concern about phone hacking and invasion of privacy. Over the past three years, we have brought 12 prosecutions and secured nine convictions for these serious offences. These decisions bring the CPS's involvement in current investigations into phone hacking to a close."

Roy Greenslade on his MediaGuardian blog on the DPP's decision: "Less surprising, however, will be the abandonment of Leveson 2, because that’s a political, as distinct from legal, decision. And we surely know that David Cameron’s government is not going to want to get on the wrong side of Rupert Murdoch all over again. All in all, the hacking saga is ending with a whimper rather than a bang. Then again, I guess it was always going to be the case."

The Times [£] in a leader: "It is right that the CPS has at last drawn a line under these investigations. They have been far from successful, securing nine convictions from 12 prosecutions under Operation Weeting, the investigation into hacking, but a mere two against journalists from 30 arrests under operations related to payments to police and public officials. Many have spent years in legal limbo after being arrested but not charged. The legal basis for further investigations, and the public appetite for them, has long since worn thin."

The Telegraph in a leader: "The Left saw an opportunity to settle old scores with newspapers they believed had long agitated against them. There was an element of snobbery in this: distaste for those who made their living reporting on celebrity and show business, but also a hope that isolated examples of wrongdoing could be used to make a case for control of an entire industry."

Piers Morgan ‏@piersmorgan on Twitter: "As I’ve said since the investigation began four years ago, I’ve never hacked a phone and nor have I ever told anybody to hack a phone."

Kelvin MacKenzie in the Sun: "Time after time juries came back with not guilty verdicts against Sun journalists accused of paying public figures.  Finally, the Lord Chief Justice ran up the white flag, saying they were only doing their jobs and weren’t guilty of anything. But if it hadn’t been for the deep pockets of News Corp, for the brilliance of the defence QCs and the sheer will of Rupert Murdoch, there could have been a very different outcome.  So I ask you never to forget this Labour conspiracy. This time it was Sun journalists, next time it could be YOU."

Jane Martinson in the Guardian: "Journalists, like everyone else, can still lie and cheat and do bad things. But after the phone-hacking scandal they will not be able to do so with impunity. News UK may return to throwing an enormous summer party next year, and the guest list is likely to include ministers, executives and chief constables. It will seem as though the British press has gone full circle; it is up to all of us to prove it has not."

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal in a ruling on RIPA being used to identify Sun journalists' sources: "The Metropolitan Police cannot be criticised for its decision to use the power granted under s 22 of RIPA in aid of the investigation into a serious criminal offence affecting public confidence in the police. The discovery of serious misconduct by a number of police officers in the DPG shows that it was entirely right to pursue the Operation Alice investigation very thoroughly. We have held that the use of the s 22 power in this investigation was indeed both necessary and proportionate in respect of three out of the four authorisations challenged, but are compelled to hold that the legal regime in place at the relevant time did not adequately safeguard the important public interest in the right of a journalist to protect the identity of his source."

Shaker Aamer and David Rose

David Rose in the Mail on Sunday on Shaker Aamer: "It is fitting that his interviews are appearing in this newspaper, for it was The Mail on Sunday that first drew the world’s attention to what was really going on at Guantanamo. Back in January 2002 – three weeks before Aamer arrived there – we published the first notorious photographs of detainees at the Camp X-ray, kneeling blindfolded and shackled in the dust, beneath a one-word headline: TORTURED. Since then, we have returned to Guantanamo time and again."

Owen Jones in the Guardian: "Such is the unrelenting nature of the media attack,  any balanced discussion on the Corbyn leadership risks being shut down. That the media can be so dominated by one opinion – and so aggressive about it – is a damning indictment of the so-called free press."

Jeremy Corbyn, in a speech to Lobby journalists: "I'm a member of the NUJ because I believe in freedom of speech, believe we should support journalists around the world and  believe it's our duty to ensure political debate is fair, open and just and not rely solely on personal attacks."

The Mail on Sunday:"The publisher of the Guardian newspaper is drawing up plans to axe jobs and slash spending as it heads for another annual loss of about £40million...The losses expected in the year to the end of March next year are due to heavy investment in digital media operations and a sharp fall in advertising income which has affected the title, said sources close to the company."

The Sun: "MINISTERS are getting cold feet over a controversial attempt to limit Freedom of Information requests after a bitter public backlash. A review into the transparency policy was launched in July in a bid to shield sensitive government conversations.  But the move has been met by a tidal wave of protest and senior ministers say they are 'decidedly unenthusiastic' about making changes. The Sun has discovered the Government has not submitted any evidence for the need for change to an independent commission doing a review."

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'My shame at being duped over Iraq war'

Journalist David Rose has told how he still feels "shamed and disgusted" at the way he was duped by those who wanted to go to war in Iraq.

Speaking in a debate at the Frontline Club, Rose who reported for the Observer and Vanity Fair in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq said he had interviewed people who had purported to be defectors from the Saddam regime who had told "a pack of lies".

He said that intelligence services knew that some of the sources were fabricating information about Iraq but they were still used to back claims that Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Rose added: "I don't think people quite realise how cynical the process of manipulation by those who wanted this war was. I still feel shamed and disgusted at being duped to that extent."

The Independent's Iraq correspondent Patrick Cockburn  said the opposition to Saddam knew there was no chance of a coup inside the country to overthrow him and knew they had to keep prodding the US to get rid of him.

Cockburn claimed that "if you know which US and British correspondents to go to you can have a good idea of what's happend in Iraq since the invasion". But he said coverage in the run-up to the war was "notoriously bad". Cockburn criticised as "appalling" the many "experts" and "talking heads" who are used by the media to comment on Iraq.

Former Radio 4 Today programme editor Kevin Marsh, now editor of the BBC College of Journalism, claimed: "Some parts of the media may have some accounting to do but the media as a whole has together done a far better job than any of the official inquiries into the Iraq war have done."

He did add, however, "I think the way in which the Lobby was orchestrated by Alastair Campbell was not the Lobby's finest hour."

Cockburn stressed the importance of having experienced reporters on the ground. "Good reporting comes from people who've been there a long time." But he admitted it had become far more dangerous for journalists to operate on their own in war zones. 

Rose pointed out that the media industry was in danger of collapsing as the old business models failed and editorial budgets came under pressure.

"The first place that feels the pinch is covering foreign conflicts - not Cheryl Cole," he said.

Pic: (Left to Right) Patrick Cockburn, Kevin Marsh and David Rose.

Government pledge on local newspaper crisis

The Government responded to the crisis facing newspapers today by announcing it was undertaking an investigation to see what could be done to help the industry, Parliamentary correspondent David Rose reports on the Press Gazette website.
Rose says:"Media secretary Andy Burnham said that he had asked Lord Carter of Barnes, the communications minister, to look at the local news media as part of his work on developing digital communications in Britain and agreed himself to meet with the National Union of Journalists."