Media Quotes of the Week: From has social media turned us into a nation of voyeurs? to more support for Gareth Davies over Met's harassment notice

Sid James in Carry On Abroad

Simon Kelner in the Independent on the media coverage given to the breakup of Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk's marriage: "Social media has turned us into a nation of voyeurs, and those who know about these things have clearly estimated that there is an appetite among the general public to read about the Danczuks. Not because of Simon’s work in campaigning against paedophiles (his book about Cyril Smith led to an inquiry at Westminster into historical child abuse) but because his wife has large breasts, and she’s not afraid to show them off. We may be a sensitive, mature society, but when it comes to a woman with big bazoomas, we are about as evolved as Sid James in a Carry On movie."

Roger Mosey in the Guardian: "Politicians should not waver in their commitment to listed events. The biggest sporting moments should be available to everyone in the UK, irrespective of their financial means. Imagine London 2012 behind a paywall, with the triumphs of Bradley Wiggins and Jessica Ennis seen only by those who paid a subscription; or contemplate the future of the Champions League now wholly owned by BT or the lessons of cricket only live on Sky. However good a job the pay broadcasters do, public service and maximum access for all are still things that matter hugely in the world of sport."

Neil Wallis after being found not guilty of phone hacking, as reported by Press Gazette: "I just want to say I will never get over this. I've been virtually unable to work for four years. It's taken my health, my family's health and all because of a campaign against journalists."

Jane Martinson in the Guardian: "Where is the Taylor Swift of news? Not for glamour or youth, though lord knows the business could do with both, but someone with the singer’s ability to convince technology companies to pay for their work."

Charles Moore at the end of his column in the Telegraph: "These pages have been redesigned. It is a known fact about redesigns that words are always lost in the process. Why is it, then, that any words are left in newspapers at all? It is because, I am glad to say, words never stop growing. They can be cut back by determined gardeners, but they will only creep back in again. Watch this space."

Jeremy Clarkson in the Sunday Times [£]: "I hate Which? magazine. I hate every single thing it does and every single thing it stands for. I hate having to share a planet with people whose job is to test kettles. And I hate, even more, people who read their findings before deciding what sort to buy. It’s an effing kettle, for God’s sake. Just buy the blue one."

Index on Censorship ‏@IndexCensorship on Twitter backs Croydon Advertiser reporter Gareth Davies over the issuing of a harassment notice against him: "Reporters who put questions to criminals should not receive police harassment letters."

Investigative journalist Andrew Penman in the Mirror urges readers to sign the Press Gazette petition backing Gareth Davies: "Every week I  confront alleged rogues, so I presume it is only a matter of time before the police come banging on my door. That’s a view I base on the appalling experience of local newspaper reporter Gareth Davies."

Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors: "It is not the place of the police to threaten journalists about who they question. Ironically, anti-harassment law came about as a result of media campaigns to prevent stalking. Journalists know the law and its principles are enshrined in editorial codes for both newspapers and broadcasters. With those constraints in place, the police should have no role in telling journalists who they should or should not question."

News Media Association chief executive David Newell in a letter to the IPCC: "It is a matter of the deepest concern to us and our members that journalists complying with their ethical and legal responsibility of seeking a right of reply to, or comment on, a story they are investigating could have PINs [Police Information Notices] imposed on them for doing nothing more than complying with the requirements to which they will be held by the Courts as a matter of defamation or by IPSO as a matter of accuracy.”

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Media Quotes of the Week: From Sun sniffer dog caused panic in the News of the World newsroom to why are there so few women sports journalists?

Nick Davies in an extract from his new book Hack Attack in the Guardian on News of the World staff: "In the same way, they were ruthless in exposing any target who used illegal drugs, but there was no shortage of journalists using the same drugs. Former reporters tell stories of a Christmas disco where the dancefloor was almost empty while various guests resorted to the toilets to snort cocaine; and of a ripple of panic when the Sun let their anti-drug hound, Charlie the Sniffer Dog, loose in the newsroom."

Neil Wallis ‏@neilwallis on Twitter after being charged with phone hacking: "I'm devastated that more than 3 years after my initial arrest, this swingeing indiscriminate charge had been brought against me."

The Sunday Mirror: "Former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s son Nicky threatened to gag the Sunday Mirror tonight over claims about his private life. The 28-year-old instructed lawyers who threatened an injunction at London’s High Court on Saturday afternoon over a story about him we planned to publish."

Piers Morgan ‏@piersmorgan on Twitter: "Hmm... @thetimes transcript of @usainbolt 'bit s***' comment looks like he's talking about the weather to me."

Dylan Jones on Press Gazette: "I fear for it [the newspaper industry]. I don’t have a magic wand, but I’m a keen advocate of charging for content... If you give people things for free they expect to keep getting it for free. It’s very simple – the psychology is not difficult to understand."

Raymond Snoddy ‏@RaymondSnoddy on Twitter: "Journalists are, quite rightly, in jail because they broke the law but why do bankers seem to be immune from criminal prosecution?"

Robert Fisk in the Independent: "To die is one thing – to be turned into a blob quite another matter. The blob is the weird, mystical “cloud” which weak-kneed television producers place over the image of a dead human face. They are not worried that the Israelis will complain that a dead Palestinian face demonstrates Israeli brutality. Nor that a dead Israeli face will make a beast of the Palestinian who killed the dead Israeli. No. They are worried about Ofcom. They are worried about rules. They are worried about good taste – something these TV chappies know all about – because they are fearful that someone will scream if they see a real dead human being on the news."

The Women and Sport report: "The NUJ argued that the 'briefest of flicks through the back pages of newspapers will show a dearth of women reporting or photographing sport and virtually no coverage of women's sporting events. This partially reflects the situation in national papers, where the majority of bylines belong to men… it seems that you are more likely to see a female reporter on the frontline of a war than the touchline of a football or rugby match.'"

The Women and Sport report: "There are comparatively easy ways in which the media could contribute to reinforcing the view that women’s sport is normal and worthy of interest. One example would be for more national newspapers to publish the results of women’s matches alongside the men’s. Another would be for journalists and commentators to refrain from discussing the appearance
of sportswomen and from making derogatory comments about the ability of women in general to play sports."

Veteran newspaper journalist at a leaving do: "It's easy to remember the names of staff now - because there's so few of them."

Media Quotes of the Week: From is Alan Rusbridger a victim of McCarthyism? to Fleet Street Fox gives Peaches Geldof legal advice

Rusbridger: 'Patriotic about a free press'

Alan Rusbridger asked if he loved this country by Home Affairs Committte chair Keith Vaz, as reported by the Guardian: "I'm slightly surprised to be asked the question. But, yes, we are patriots and one of the things we are patriotic about is the nature of democracy, the nature of a free press and the fact that one can in this country discuss and report these things."

Dan Hodges on his Telegraph politics blog: "When politicians are summoning newspaper editors before them to question their patriotism then we’ve got a problem. It’s fashionable to complain of 'McCarthyism' whenever someone is challenged on just about anything these days. But what has just happened is the very definition of McCarthyism."

Carl Bernstein in an open letter to Alan Rusbridger: "As we learned in the United States during our experience with the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, it is essential that no prior governmental restraints or intimidation be imposed on a truly free press; otherwise, in such darkness, we encourage the risk of our democracies falling prey to despotism and demagoguery and even criminality by our elected leaders and government officials."

The Washington Post: "The pressures coming to bear on the Guardian, observers say, are testing the limits of press freedoms in one of the world’s most open societies. Although Britain is famously home to a fierce pack of news media outlets — including the tabloid hounds of old Fleet Street — it also has no enshrined constitutional right to free speech. The Guardian, in fact, has slipped into the single largest crack in the free speech laws that are on the books here — the dissemination of state secrets protecting queen and country in the British homeland."

Ex-Sun editor David Yelland in the Guardian: "Whether they are mad or just lack self-awareness, the fact is editors and proprietors in this country see themselves as the small guy, the powerless man struggling against the establishment. What they fail to grasp is that they have become the establishment themselves. They are the powerful, and others are the weak. Ask the McCanns, the Dowlers, or Christopher Jefferies."

Neil Wallis ‏@neilwallis1 on Twitter: "David Yelland always had this sad craving for approval & acceptance by the Liberal Establishment. And BBC/Guardian axis will love this."

Paul Vickers, in a statement on the progress of the Independent Press Standards Organisation: “The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with publishers representing more than 90% of the national press and the vast majority of the regional press, along with major magazine publishers, signing.”

Steve Hewlett in the Guardian: "By all means let the BBC use its airwaves to promote its programmes, services and even underlying purposes; but advancing its own corporate position in relation to matters of public controversy, including its own future, is a different matter. That would be another of those thin lines that for the sake of the BBC's long-term health and welfare really shouldn't be crossed."

Eleanor Mills, chair of Women in Journalism, in the Independent: "One of the things I’m particularly struck by is the lack of female bylines in the ‘deep ends’ of newspapers, in the main news sections and comment. That’s something I will be taking a look at. There’s a macho, misogynist culture on many news desks, particularly on the tabloids. That’s not acceptable, and I think in some ways that it’s going backwards.”

BBC news director James Harding, as reported by the Guardian: "Our response to Savile and McAlpine should not be that we shy away from investigative reporting and the coverage of difficult issues. In fact, we must renew our commitment to curious, inquisitive journalism in the public interest." 

Attorney General Dominic Grieve on the Government website: "Blogs and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook mean that individuals can now reach thousands of people with a single tweet or post. This is an exciting prospect, but it can pose certain challenges to the criminal justice system. In days gone by, it was only the mainstream media that had the opportunity to bring information relating to a court case to such a large group of people that it could put a court case at risk. That is no longer the case, and is why I have decided to publish the advisories that I have previously only issued to the media."

Fleet Street Fox gives Peaches Geldof a bit of legal advice, on her Mirror blog: "As for Peaches - perhaps a new tattoo is in order. I suggest 'Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976, section 4, b), ii) and section 5'. If that's not zingy enough, perhaps 'I am not a journalist' across the forehead might help."

Media Quotes of the Week: From tweeting about the Royal baby to what's the difference between a tabloid journalist and a posh lawyer?

 Royal baby on Twitter:

Alison B ‏@akbea: "Breaking: Nicholas Witchell is now fully dilated."

peterwalker99 ‏@peterwalker99 :  "Royalty is essentially quite a medieval notion, and this huge, overheated, overexcited press pen does have a medieval town fair feel to it."

polly curtis ‏@pollycurtis : "Ok Kate, you have 12 hours before 1st editions go to press. No pressure."

Mike Lowe ‏@cotslifeeditor: "The BBC informs us that there will be no further news of the Royal baby for several hours. And will now spend several hours telling us that."

fleetstreetfox ‏@fleetstreetfox: "Sunday newspapers everywhere start their working week knowing they need to find a Royal Baby line people will still want to know in 5 days."

Miles Barter ‏@MilesBarter: "Celebrate the royal birth. Storm a palace."

Louise Jack ‏@xloubellxx : “@BBCBreakfast: Has there been too much coverage about the arrival of the #RoyalBabyBoy ? We'll discuss whether there has at 0740.” Hahaha

Nicky Campbell ‏@NickyAACampbell: "21 pages of Royal baby coverage in the Mail today including an article headed "Was the BBC over the top?".

Simon Jenkins in the Guardian: "The media's job is to mediate reality. It is to say why the dead body in the road matters. Journalism has long struggled with the paradox that good news is unsurprising and therefore not news. Fifty planes landing safely at Heathrow is as boring as 50 celebrities sleeping soundly in their own beds."

Guardian report on YouGov poll commissioned by Media Standards Trust on press regulation: "Trust remains high in Lord Justice Leveson, with 61% saying they trust the judge a great deal or a fair amount, compared with 17% who trust the major newspaper publishers...Asked who else they trust in the debate on newspaper regulation, 34% of those polled trust David Cameron; 7% trust Rupert Murdoch; 17% the major newspaper publishers; 33% Ed Miliband; 61% BBC News; 44% Hugh Grant, the actor who campaigns for stricter press regulations; 27% Nick Clegg; and 41% the campaigning group Hacked Off."

Harriet Harman in a letter to Fleet Street editors: "How many of the staff journalists you employ are over the age of 50? How many of these are women?"

Daily Mail in a leader: "The Serious Organised Crime Agency admits having details of numerous blue-chip companies, insurers, legal firms, and wealthy individuals who routinely used the services of corrupt private detectives to hack phones and otherwise illegally acquire private information on rivals. Yet instead of hammering on doors at 5am and dragging senior executives to the police station for questioning, SOCA is actively defending them."

The Sun in a leader:  "We now know that the police have had evidence for years that lawyers, accountants and other blue-chip companies also hired investigators. Lord Leveson also knew. But he chose to ignore it all. So has David Cameron called for a similar inquiry? There’s not been a peep from him.  And none of them has ever been charged. As if that wasn’t hypocrisy enough, the Serious Organised Crime Agency has now rejected demands that it release the companies’ names. It says that would damage their “financial viability”. No one is falling for that one. A free Press holds people in power to account. That often includes lawyers, accountants and the others who are now being protected. Double standards? That’s the least of it."

The Independent on Sunday in a leader:  "The companies concerned should have nothing to fear from fair reporting of the facts. If they have been investigated by Soca, it is up to them to explain that they have not knowingly employed private investigators to engage in criminal activity on their behalf.In October, the unloved Soca will be merged into a new National Crime Agency. Let us hope this change of name will signify a change in the organisation’s culture, so that it sees openness as a means of fighting crime and not a distraction from it."

Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail: "Although some of the response to the antics of the News of the World has been overblown, I’m not going to complain if its former executives are found guilty after a fair trial, and led away. But it would be an outrage if people who have done far worse were let off scot-free — an outrage which showed what the powers that be really think about a free Press." 

Neil Wallis, former deputy editor of the News of the World, in the Independent: "When I was arrested and questioned over alleged phone hacking, none of the evidence produced was anything remotely other than circumstantial at the very strongest. I spent 19 nightmare months unemployable on bail before being cleared. So why is it that executives on the Soca list are not being treated in the same way? Because I can’t see the difference between me and a posh lawyer who worked for companies who allegedly paid private investigators to break the law. Except, of course, I’m a tabloid journalist and apparently not a respectable businessman.”

Quotes of the Week: From Mail's 'vile' front page to how much does an Edwina Currie quote cost?

Zoe Williams in the Guardian: "The Daily Mail reminds me a little bit of climate change: you think you've got the measure of just how bad it is, but every time you look it's taken another appalling leap forward. Yesterday, following the conviction of the Philpotts for the manslaughter of their six children, it called Mick Philpott the "vile product of welfare UK". The cynicism, the lack of respect for the dead, the dehumanising terminology (he "bred" the children, it says); the front page alone told us all we need to know." 

Daily Mail in a leader: "As the debate over welfare reform rages on, one mystery increasingly perplexes and infuriates the Guardianistas of the well-heeled, middle-class Left. Why, they ask over the Chablis, do the working-class poor so stubbornly refuse to share their enlightened belief in the wonders of the welfare state? To their bemusement, poll after poll has shown that three-quarters of voters (including most Labour supporters) want benefits reined in, with the clamour for cuts at its loudest among workers at the bottom end of the pay scale." 

George Osborne, as reported by the Guardian: "It's right we ask questions as a government, a society and as taxpayers, why we are subsidising lifestyles like these. It does need to be handled."

Dan Hodges on his Telegraph blog: "Headlines like the Mail’s, and lazy characterisations of those on welfare as 'scroungers' 'chavs' or the 'shameless generation' add nothing to our understanding of this complex issue. But nor does the similarly frenzied, emotive and immature language being deployed by welfare's self-styled defenders."

Joel Simon, executive director of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, in a letter to David Cameron on press regulation:"Prime Minister, we urge you to take a step back from the current proposals, which do not take into account the implications for press freedom beyond Fleet Street. Online journalists and bloggers and those outside the London-based, national newspaper establishment need to have their voices heard too. The haste with which this deal has been put together leaves too many unanswered questions. Journalists, especially those working under authoritarian regimes, are watching and hoping that their colleagues in Britain can find a better solution than regulation anchored in law. Mr. Cameron, we think that in the interests of global press freedom, you should allow them the opportunity to do so."

Neil Thackray on TheMediaBriefing: "So the victory for the press is not in seeing off statutory underpinning, but rather seeing the malaise in journalism for what it is. A poisonous infection of inanity and untruths that clouds the best of what journalism can do. Until or unless that is fixed, newspaper owners pleading for a free press is little more persuasive than the pimp arguing for sexual freedom."

Neil Wallis on the Huffington Post slams Liberty for not speaking up for journalists arrested in the UK:  "Liberty is, of course, like many such groups, largely left-of-centre in attitude and premise. Almost universally, they don't approve of mass media that is not broadsheet in presentation or pink of hue. You know, the papers and magazine most people choose NOT to buy. Some such left-wing organisations very often fight for freedoms for those it approves of, but are silent about those they consider less worthy."

Sun crime editor Mike Sullivan speaking to the BBC after Scotland Yard said no action will be taken against him following his arrest: "I am very pleased. It has been a long 14 months in many ways, but my delight at the news today is tempered by the fact that so many colleagues are still in the same situation. I hope they find some resolution."

Kelvin MacKenzie in his Telegraph column praises the Eastern Daily Press for winning a legal battle to name a councillor who was drunk in charge of a child: "Thank God for newspapers and thank God in particular for the Eastern Daily Press, its strong-willed editor, Nigel Pickover, and the company’s management who would have had to pick up the cheque if it had all gone horribly wrong."

Andrew Gilligan in the Sunday Telegraph: "Hacked Off did it by using all the red-top tricks they claim to hate – broad-brush condemnations, simplistic arguments, distorted facts, behind-the-scenes political deal making, celebrity stardust and the emotive deployment of victims."

New BBC director-general Tony Hall in an email to staff: "We are now winning back trust, something which will always be the most precious commodity for our organisation. We must never take it for granted."

Lord Melvyn Bragg, as reported by the Guardian, calls for a purge of BBC middle management:"The Savile crisis has exposed a dire structure and I think he [Tony Hall] should go in with a cleansing sword. It's not just individuals – it's the system...Savile exposed the problems with the middle management at the BBC, which clogs everything up. I speak as a great admirer of the BBC [but] it is amazing that they can get any programmes done at all." 

Eddie Mair in the Radio Times: "As for all the hullaballoo … for the record, I don't want Jeremy's job. Or John's. Or Andrew's. I like mine."

Freelance TV producer Nick Frost @nicholasfrost on Twitter: "Former Tory MP Edwina Currie says SHE could live on £53 a week. Asked her to talk to @5_news about it, she wanted 500 quid."

Journalism in the Dock: Are we being frogmarched into a police state or is that just tabloid tosh?

Brian Flynn and Neil Wallis: Journalism in the Dock debate (pic Jon Slattery)

The investigations editor of the Sun has warned that from his view on the frontline of journalism "it feels like we are being frogmarched into a police state".

Brian Flynn, speaking at the 'Journalism in the Dock' debate at City University last night, claimed the Leveson Inquiry was being used as "a land grab" to crackdown on the press.

"I'm 41 years old. I never thought I would see in my lifetime all the things that are happening," he said. "Officials are being arrested for speaking to journalists where no money is involved."

Flynn said journalists were working in an environment where they were seeing their colleagues arrested and stories were now being turned away because the bribery law contained no public interest defence. 

As an example, he claimed if a worker in a care home asked for money to expose abuse it would not  be published in the current climate even though it was clearly in the public interest.

"The sad thing, it feels to me, is that people are seeing the chance to crackdown on journalists because there's no sympathy for journalists."

Neil Wallis, the former executive editor of the News of the World, claimed the crackdown on the press was "payback time" for those who disliked the power of Rupert Murdoch and he told the student journalists in the audience: "They are destroying your career...the truth is they are not going to let you be journalists."

He added: "It's your freedom they are playing with. Once it [press freedom] goes you won't get it back."

Former News of the World journalist turned journalism lecturer Bethany Usher told of her ordeal at being arrested over material given to the police by News International. She was cleared after eight days but described it as "among the most terrifying of my life." Usher, the first journalist arrested during the Leveson Inquiry, said she was subjected to threats and abused on Twitter. "It was a very difficult eight days but was over quickly."

City University professor Ivor Gaber spoke out from the audience about the tabloid journalists apocalyptic vision. He said it was ludicrous to talk about a police state and claimed it did "a disservice to those who are struggling against repression" in other countries.

Gaber accused Flynn and Wallis of going into tabloid mode and seeing everything in black and white, while press regulation was a far more complex issue.

Hacked Off director Brian Cathcart said: "If people have broken the law and are found guilty, I don't think there's much to complain about."

Former Guardian editor Peter Preston warned of the impact the arrest of journalists in the UK was having  in the rest of the world. He said the Turkish prime minister had told the International Press Institute that it was alright to lock up journalists on terrorism charges "because it happens in Britain all the time."

• Neil Wallis said he was concerned that journalism colleges in the south of England were populated by people who had worked only for the broadsheets.
• Charlie Harris, from the Institute of Journalists, claimed the police had "more or less stopped talking to local journalists" and groups like Hacked Off should be aware of their impact on the press across the country.   

'Royal Charter press regulation plan won't happen'

Mick Hume makes a point to Hacked Off's Evan Harris (pic: Jon Slattery)

The proposed Royal Charter plan for a new press regulation system will not happen, Hacked Off associate director Evan Harris predicted at a Media Society debate in London last night.

Harris, a former Liberal Democrat MP, said: "There is no sign of agreement. It is far short of Leveson. I don't believe a Royal Charter will happen" and claimed that there was "no agreement on about 20 issues."

Speaking at the launch of a new book of essays, After Leveson?, The Future of British Journalism, Harris said the Liberal Democrats and Labour supported the recommendations of the "very moderate" Leveson Report.

Harris also claimed that press representatives have insisted that a proposed "conscience clause" for journalists - which would protect them from being sacked if they refused to act unethically in pursuing a story - be kept out of any new press regulation proposal.

The clause was supported by Leveson and has been a long term aim of the NUJ which wants it included in journalists' work contracts.

The debate, in which Mick Hume, author of There Is No Such Thing As A Free Press, took a strong anti-Leveson line to counter Harris, generated more heat than light.

Hume argued that the press was "cowed" by Leveson. He told Harris: "This is a fucking war. A free press is the bedrock of a democratic society."

He described the NUJ, left wingers and liberals who had embraced much of the Leveson Report as "a disgrace".

Speaking from the audience, Dorothy Byrne, commissioning editor for Channel 4 news and current affairs , said big corporations and Governments have tried their best to use Ofcom regulations to block legitimate investigations by Channel 4, including its programmes on war crimes in Sri Lanka.

She added: "Anybody thinking about legal regulation of the press needs to take into account that large corporations and evil regimes will try to use it to stop freedom of speech."

Former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis spoke of his ordeal of being on bail for 21 months over the hacking inquiry before police said no action would be taken.

"Frankly, the experience has been horrendous, " he said. "Twenty-one months of being on bail not being charged at the behest of the state is horrendous. That's a pretty scary place to be."

Wallis said his case raised big issues not just about journalists but other areas of the law on the length of time people can be kept on bail without being charged.
 

• After Leveson?, The Future of British Journalism, edited by John Mair, is published by Abramis at £19:95.

Telegraph exclusive: Neil Wallis was paid by News International while working for Scotland Yard

The Daily Telegraph claims in an exclusive that Neil Wallis, the former deputy editor of the News of the World employed by the Metropolitan Police, was secretly paid more than £25,000 by News International during his time at Scotland Yard.

The Telegraph says Wallis was paid the money during late 2009 and 2010 for providing “crime exclusives” including details of Scotland Yard investigations.

At the time, he was working as a police consultant working closely with Sir Paul Stephenson, the then commissioner. Wallis was also paid £24,000 from taxpayer funds for his work at the force.

The Telegraph reports: "The details of his News International payments have emerged in billing records obtained by detectives investigating the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World.

"It is understood that Mr Wallis was also selling crime stories to other newspapers during his time at Scotland Yard.

"The legality of Mr Wallis, who was effectively working as a police employee, selling potentially confidential police information to tabloid newspapers is not clear."

• According to Bloomberg News, Andy Coulson is said to be suing his former employer over legal fees.