Media UK

The Press - news archive

This is an archive of news about The Press. Some links may no longer work, due to the transient nature of the internet.

Peter Wilby on the press: Georgia has won the PR war
From Media Guardian. Posted August 17 2008, 11.06pm
On the Press, Peter Wilby: Newspapers lack the resources to find out what is really going on in Georgia and Saakashvili's government has played this to its advantage with a skillfully deployed PR campaign (more)

Peter Wilby on the press: A tale of Poles and prejudice
From Media Guardian. Posted August 10 2008, 11.03pm
Peter Wilby on the press: In the Daily Mail, the lead letter, from the Federation of Poles in Great Britain, was headlined 'Poles feel persecuted'. The writer, Wiktor Moszczynski, complained about 'newspaper coverage emphasising negative aspects of the Polish presence in the UK' (more)

Vekselberg ups the pressure on BP
From Daily Telegraph. Posted July 21 2008, 12.01am
The row surrounding BP's Russian joint venture intensified last night after it emerged that one of its billionaire partners had written a letter to try to prevent the chief executive of TNK-BP from obtaining a visa to remain in the country. (more)

Trying time for the freedom of the press
From Media Guardian. Posted July 12 2008, 11.02pm
British privacy laws will get much tougher if Max Mosley wins in court, writes James Robinson (more)

Sholto Byrnes: It's time to curtail the freedom of the press
From Media Guardian. Posted July 8 2008, 3.00pm
Sholto Byrnes: There are certain things newspapers do not have the right to print, which is why I hope Max Mosley wins his case (more)

Did the press play a part in Crippen's downfall?
From Media Guardian. Posted June 29 2008, 11.03pm
Murder, sex, celebrity - it was a compelling combination for the Edwardian tabloids, but did their feeding frenzy convict an innocent man? (more)

Peter Wilby on the press: The rush to rubbish Davis
From Media Guardian. Posted June 22 2008, 11.11pm
On the press, Peter Wilby: 'You've all heard the story,' wrote Kelvin MacKenzie in his Sun column last Thursday. Well, no, Kelvin, not if we are among the 10 million who allegedly read the super, soaraway Currant Bun. (more)

Fuel, food and a roof over your head - the pressure is on
From The Times. Posted June 18 2008, 12.00am
Anna Saggerson, 30, a first-time buyer, believes that the only way she will get into the housing market is to buy with a friend and pick up a house at auction. “Finding a house that was previously repossessed might be the only ray of hope at the moment,” she said. (more)

On the press, Peter Willby: Experts should mark the comment spot
From Media Guardian. Posted June 15 2008, 11.03pm
On the press, Peter Willby: Nothing is for ever. Before the second world war, regular signed opinion columns scarcely existed in British newspapers (more)

Korean media organizations campaign to oust 3 ?enemies of the press?
From Media Network Weblog. Posted June 11 2008, 5.53pm
Media organizations and civic groups in South Korea have named three people as “enemies of the press” and launched a campaign to oust them. The three - Choi Si-jung, the chairman of the Broadcasting and Communications Commission; Lee Dong-kwan, the presidential spokesperson; and Shin Jae-min, the vice minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism - have [...] (more)

Inside Story: Join the press club!
From The Independent. Posted June 9 2008, 12.00am
(more)

The Press Photographer's Year 2008: Guardian winner
From Media Guardian. Posted June 6 2008, 4.19pm
The results of the Press Photographer's Year competition for 2008 saw the Guardian's Sean Smith win the multimedia category and several other Guardian photographers recognised (more)

Guardian.co.uk: WAN 2008: The struggle to secure freedom of the press
From Journalism.co.uk. Posted June 2 2008, 10.07am
The final words spoken at a lengthy round table discussion on press freedom at the the World Association of Newspapers 2008 conference here in Gothenburg, Sweden, were obvious but challenging: "There is no international standard of freedom of expression." (more)

The Press Complaints Commission: Annual Report for 2007
From Hold the Front Page. Posted May 22 2008, 1.20am
A host of key findings have been revealed in the press watchdog's annual report (more)

Question of the week: Is self-regulation of the press working?
From Media Guardian. Posted May 18 2008, 11.03pm
Question of the week: Last week Peter Hill, editor of the Daily Express, resigned from the PCC. Peter Wright, editor of the Mail on Sunday, is replacing him (more)

Press and Broadcasting: Time for a spin at the press watchdog
From Media Guardian. Posted May 17 2008, 11.03pm
Peter Preston: Peter Hill, dominant editor at the Express Group, couldn't really remain a Press Complaints Commission member for long after he'd been forced to apologise in Technicolor to the McCanns (more)

Final editions of Kent weekly newspapers hit the presses
From Hold the Front Page. Posted May 16 2008, 7.00am
Award-winning Bromley and Bexley titles close down (more)

Should we care about freedom of the press?
From Press Gazette. Posted May 13 2008, 12.00am
Freedom of the press: ?Steve Lowe, editor of Bedfordshire on Sunday, says regulation and new laws pose a threat (more)

'Upmarket' shift for The Press in design facelift
From Hold the Front Page. Posted April 30 2008, 11.20am
Fresh typography and design creates a brighter, cleaner appearance (more)

Meet the Press Complaints Commission's new line-up
From The Independent. Posted April 28 2008, 12.00am
(more)

His final bow: Bush's last supper with the press
From Media Guardian. Posted April 27 2008, 11.00pm
President describes his mood as 'a little wistful' as he attends last White House correspondents' dinner. By Ewen MacAskill in Washington (more)

Former Sunday Telegraph editor Peregrine Worsthorne takes the Spectator to the Press Complaints Commission
From Media Guardian. Posted April 7 2008, 3.20pm
Former Sunday Telegraph editor Sir Peregrine Worsthorne has complained to the PCC after the Spectator removed a critical reference to the magazine's owners from a book review. By Stephen Brook (more)

President's wife attacks press ... in the press
From Media Guardian. Posted March 20 2008, 12.17am
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has taken the unprecedented step of writing an opinion piece on reporters taking gossip for fact. By Angelique Chrisafis (more)

Day the press turned against the McCanns
From Media Guardian. Posted March 19 2008, 6.11pm
The McCanns' decision to detail the accusations against them may have unwittingly contributed to negative media coverage, reports Esther Addley (more)

On The Press: Donald Trelford
From The Independent. Posted March 17 2008, 12.00am
Some years ago I took part in a radio debate about the level of privacy to which public figures were entitled. "None" was the verdict of one of my fellow editors – rather harsh, I thought, since everyone, even an elected MP, should surely be allowed a private life. (more)

Big guns of the press all quiet on the Iraqi front
From The Independent. Posted March 16 2008, 12.00am
In August 2005, as the violence intensified in Iraq, The New York Times said there was talk of withdrawing Coalition troops in the following spring. The Times's Matthew Parris seized on it. Like a soldier stepping over the edge of the trench to see if he will draw fire, he asked where all the pro-war commentators had gone. (more)

Poll: Majority of Americans do not trust the press
From Press Gazette. Posted March 10 2008, 12.00am
More than 50 per cent of Americans now say they don't trust the press, according to a disturbing a new Harris Poll. (more)

Fat-cat failures blame the press
From The Times. Posted March 9 2008, 12.00am
REMEMBER when people used to blame the parents? Or “society”? These days it’s the media what’s to blame. Celebs in rehab? Media poured the stuff down their throats and stuffed the rest up their noses. War in Iraq a horrific, ill-conceived quagmire? Media. The same holds true for the outrage expressed by some people for the massive pay checks failing chief executives have been awarding themselves in recent years. (more)

Johnston not so hot off the press as advertising slides
From Daily Telegraph. Posted March 6 2008, 12.01am
Johnston Press, publisher of The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post, said 2008 had got off to a tough start to the current year after reporting a 5pc slide in profits for 2007. (more)

How the deal was done: Editors' chief on how and why the press kept quiet on Harry
From Hold the Front Page. Posted March 4 2008, 7.10am
Society of Editors executive director Bob Satchwell was instrumental in the voluntary "understanding" (more)

No topic is so surrounded by myth as the golden age of the press
From Media Guardian. Posted February 8 2008, 12.15am
Simon Jenkins: Anti-newspaper diatribes bewail falling standards. That's rubbish, and the glory days they hark back to were dreadful (more)

Report steps up the pressure on SocGen chief Daniel Bouton
From The Times. Posted February 5 2008, 12.00am
Daniel Bouton, the chairman of Société Générale, was pushed closer to the exit door yesterday when he was accused of ignoring warnings that could have prevented the rogue trader scandal at his bank. (more)

Over the top? Look who's talking. But maybe Campbell has a point on the press
From The Independent. Posted February 3 2008, 12.00am
Right, let's get one thing out of the way. If anyone is to argue the media is ground down by negativity and lacking "basic humanity", it shouldn't be Alastair Campbell. Much as he might like to forget it, Campbell's own journalism is still publicly available in the archives. Dig around for a few minutes and you can find examples of his work in the mid-Nineties when he was political editor of the Daily Mirror. (more)

Plunge in new mortgages to lowest level for eight years adds to the pressure for cut in rates
From The Times. Posted January 31 2008, 12.00am
The number of mortgages approved last month for new homebuyers fell to its lowest level for at least eight years, fuelling speculation that interest rates will be cut next month. (more)

Fall in new mortgages adds to the pressure for cut in rates
From The Times. Posted January 30 2008, 11.45pm
The number of mortgages approved last month for new homebuyers fell to its lowest level for at least eight years, fuelling speculation that interest rates will be cut next month. (more)

Mark Casci becomes deputy news editor for Newsquest's The Press
From Journalism.co.uk. Posted January 22 2008, 12.00am
He moves to his new job from the Telegraph and Argus in Bradford    (more)

Stephen Glover On The Press: 'The Sun' is on the wane and it can't all be blamed on the internet
From The Independent. Posted January 14 2008, 1.05am
On Wednesday, Rebekah Wade, editor of The Sun, will give evidence to the House of Lords communications committee as part of its enquiry into media ownership. According to a press release from that august body, Ms Wade will be asked about the declining sales of "red tops", including her own. Perhaps it will also take an interest in the declining standards of Page Three girls. (more)

The land the press forgot
From Media Guardian. Posted December 9 2007, 11.54pm
Though you would never know it from the coverage in the domestic media, there is no doubt what the most important foreign story of the year has been - the military success of the "surge" in Iraq. James Forsyth reports (more)

Quiet man of the press bows out
From Financial Times. Posted November 22 2007, 2.00am
Charles Sinclair of Daily Mail & General Trust is one of the longest-serving chief executives among FTSE 100 groups, having been appointed in 1989 at the age of 39,... (more)

Hot off the press
From Press Gazette. Posted November 22 2007, 12.00am
When a huge fire ripped through an East London warehouse last week, reporters at Archant’s East London Advertiser were told to get close enough “for their hair to curl”. (more)

Paul Watson: 'The press told me I was finished'
From The Independent. Posted November 19 2007, 12.55am
A month ago Paul Watson's career looked to be over. An ITV legal inquiry had ruled against him on the publicity claims made for his film Malcolm and Barbara: Love's Farewell, which suggested he had filmed a man as he died. Watson was an apparent victim of British television's summer of scandal. (more)

Gavin O'Reilly: The press must stop penning its own obituary
From The Independent. Posted November 5 2007, 2.10am
For an industry billed as the "4th Estate" with a proud legacy stretching back over 400 years ? it is remarkable to me how unsophisticated the commentary is on the press these days, and specifically how and where the newspaper sits in the media matrix. It is equally astonishing how herd-like and insecure our industry has become and somewhat galling to recognise that much of the negative perception has actually been shaped by those in newspapers. (more)

On the press, Peter Wilby: Alton's departure is part of a wider drama
From Media Guardian. Posted October 28 2007, 11.55pm
On the press, Peter Wilby: Uneasy relations between Sunday and daily papers in the same stable are nothing new. (more)

Mayor pins Northern Rock crisis on the press
From Daily Telegraph. Posted October 17 2007, 11.20am
You have to have a certain amount of respect for anyone who feels comfortable with traversing half the globe in a pink Rolls-Royce. (more)

The survey says ... That manipulating the press for headlines is increasing
From The Scotsman. Posted October 12 2007, 11.15pm
IT'S amazing what companies do to try and get their names into the paper - and surveys this week seem to be the main route, for some pretty dubious claims. (more)

David Trelford on The Press
From The Independent. Posted September 10 2007, 2.45am
When Sir Christopher Meyer, formerly our man in Washington, became chairman of the Press Complaints Commission in 2003, he coined the phrase "permanent evolution" as his working policy. He has been true to his word in several respects. The number of lay members on the PCC has been raised to 10,a clear majority over seven journalists. There is an annual audit of the editors' Code of Practice, with a committee considering amendments, some from outside the profession: the Samaritans, for example, succeeded in amending the code on copycat suicides. The PCC is much more pro-active, operating a 24-hour service for complaints and an effective conciliation procedure. It has achieved greater prominence for its adjudications and has now taken over the regulation of online journalism. (more)

MoD ban on talking to the press 'unenforceable'
From Press Gazette. Posted August 17 2007, 12.00am
New restrictions on military personnel talking to the media have been condemned by journalists as evidence of how far the Government has strayed from its commitment to freedom of information. (more)

How the press can encourage parish councils to stick to the rules
From Hold the Front Page. Posted August 16 2007, 12.00am
Several options open to journalists who believe they have a right to attend meetings (more)

Are Coroners Bill proposals a gag too far on the press?
From Press Gazette. Posted August 13 2007, 12.00am
As the battle rages between the media and those who want greater privacy at inquests, the legal points need to be kept in focus. (more)

MPs back self regulation of the press
From Press Gazette. Posted July 11 2007, 12.00am
Prince William's on-off girlfriend Kate Middleton is the victim of "clear and persistent harassment" by the paparazzi and the Press Complaints Commission has failed to protect her, MPs said today. (more)

Fair comment victory for the press in Court of Appeal
From Hold the Front Page. Posted July 10 2007, 12.00am
Fears of "chilling precedent" had newspaper not won the day (more)

Cherie's parting shot to the press: We won't miss you
From Media Guardian. Posted June 28 2007, 1.00am
Cherie Blair's battles with the media continued unabated throughout the 10 years of her husband's premiership. By Hugh Muir. (more)

Kevin Marsh: MPs need to debate the conduct of the press
From Press Gazette. Posted June 13 2007, 12.00am
Kevin Marsh, editor of the BBC College of Journalism, said that Blair was right to highlight the problems with the PCC but that the solution did not lie in creating another regulatory body similar to the broadcasting body, Ofcom. (more)

Bob Satchwell: Blair has been too hard on the press
From Press Gazette. Posted June 13 2007, 12.00am
Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, said he was happy that Blair "admitted it was him and his party that played a big part" in changing the relationship between politics and the media. (more)

Falconer: FOI is for the public, not the press
From Press Gazette. Posted March 21 2007, 9.25am
Freedom of Information is mainly for the public and not the press, Lord Falconer is due to say in a lecture today. (more)

Media figures speak out on privacy and regulation of the press
From Hold the Front Page. Posted March 7 2007, 12.00am
PCC and NUJ among those to give evidence to Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport (more)

Should the press always be allowed to publish critics' comments?
From Media Guardian. Posted February 9 2007, 12.00am
Legal comment: Should the press be punished for publishing the comments of a critic? By Edgar Forbes. (more)

Comment: Cash rewards from the press to find murderers
From Media Guardian. Posted December 14 2006, 12.00am
Comment: Are the cash rewards put up by the press for catching killers public spirited or unethical and disruptive? By Edgar Forbes. (more)

Peter Cole on The Press: Papers lead the politicos in beating the Iraq retreat
From The Independent. Posted October 29 2006, 12.00am
There are times when our national newspapers are reassuringly predictable. But with the war in Iraq it is different. Can you identify the four newspapers to which the following quotes from leading articles belong? (more)

Stephen Glover 0n the Press
From The Independent. Posted October 23 2006, 12.00am
Both of London's new freesheets had a pretty good first month. Associated Newspapers' London Lite had an average daily distribution of 359,389 in September, while Rupert Murdoch's thelondonpaper notched up 327,120 copies. (more)

MP set to sue The Press over elections tactics letter
From Press Gazette. Posted October 19 2006, 12.00am
The independent Dewsbury and District Press is facing a claim for libel damages of £100,000 after publishing allegations in a letter by a former Conservative councillor accusing MP Shahid Malik of aggressive local election tactics. (more)

Peter Cole on The Press: Who, where and when: free papers are aiming high
From The Independent. Posted September 24 2006, 12.00am
Glasgow, Manchester and London in the space of three days. Glasgow PM, the "lite" afternoon version of the morning paper, the Daily Record, has a front page in which "This paper costs just 15p" is half the page deep. You get a bar of chocolate as well. (more)

The Press Complaints Commission: The best a press can get
From The Independent. Posted September 18 2006, 12.00am
After years wandering the world I am, at last, thanks to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), getting to know my own country. Since starting my first term as chairman in 2003, I have kept up a pretty steady programme of visits to editors and proprietors outside London. This has, for instance, taken me to Scotland 14 times and to Newcastle on three occasions. (more)

Government will give notice of inquests that bar the press
From Press Gazette. Posted August 31 2006, 12.00am
The Government has accepted that jrouanlists should be given notice of any intention to exclude the press from inquiries or deny them access to documents and evidence. (more)

Inside story: Introducing the Press Gang
From The Independent. Posted August 28 2006, 12.00am
(more)

Storm coverage late edition rolls off The Press
From Press Gazette. Posted August 24 2006, 12.00am
The Press in York has shown that early edition regional papers can react to late-breaking news, by rushing out an on-the-day special after severe storms hit Yorkshire. (more)

Adjudication and Clarification by the Press Complaints Commission - Joanna Riding
From The Independent. Posted August 21 2006, 11.04am
Ms Joanna Riding complained to the Press Complaints Commission through her agents, Scott Marshall Partners, that an article published in on 8th March 2006 in the "Pandora" column intruded into her privacy in breach of Clause 3 (Privacy). The complaint was upheld. (more)

The soft soaps in the press box
From Media Guardian. Posted August 21 2006, 1.00am
As the Premiership season kicks off, academic Raymond Boyle argues that too much sports reporting and punditry fails to give an honest and insightful account of the action. (more)

On the press, Kim Fletcher: Roll up for a good, old-fashioned fight for the future
From Media Guardian. Posted August 21 2006, 1.00am
Kim Fletcher: Newspapers are dying, but no one can accuse them of going quietly. (more)

Football has got to get the press on its side
From The Independent. Posted August 14 2006, 12.00am
Football clubs have long enjoyed a love-hate relationship with the media. Managers such as Alex Ferguson and Jos� Mourinho regularly fall out with the press unless the football correspondents are wholesomely flattering about them. (more)

Major breakthrough for The Press in child abduction campaign
From Press Gazette. Posted July 20 2006, 12.00am
The Press in York has won a major breakthrough in its campaign for a law change that would see child kidnappers placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register. (more)

Airbus ups the pressure on Boeing
From BBC News. Posted July 17 2006, 3.31pm
European planemaker Airbus unveils plans for its new look A350, stepping up the battle with rival Boeing. (more)

The Press Association joins AOP
From Journalism.co.uk. Posted July 17 2006, 12.00pm
Move highlights importance of digital content to the agency (more)

Stephen Glover: On The Press
From The Independent. Posted July 3 2006, 12.00am
My old friend and colleague Boris Johnson has a deeply held belief which I am sure he will not mind my sharing. Boris thinks that newspapers have no right to write about the private lives of politicians. If he held this view before the Sunday Mirror revealed his affair with Petronella Wyatt, it has subsequently been engraved on his heart. (more)

Northern Ireland: Will the press still floursh in peacetime?
From Press Gazette. Posted May 11 2006, 12.00am
Decades of unrest and a strong sense of community have helped the Northern Irish press flourish. will the golden age of publishing last in times of peace? (more)

Clarke vs the press
From Press Gazette. Posted April 27 2006, 12.00am
Home Secretary Charles Clarke launched a stinging attack on the press on Monday. Now his targets have responded. (more)

Don't panic! The press does a Corporal Jones
From The Independent. Posted April 16 2006, 12.00am
Panic over. That was the panic when we were told not to panic because none of us was at risk simply because we were not birds. How have we moved from a pandemic to a complete lack of concern in no longer than it takes a dead swan to float across the North Sea? (more)

Defending the press
From Media Guardian. Posted April 5 2006, 5.08pm
Legal comment: In a neat role-reversal, a man has been given an Asbo for harassing a local newspaper in Yorkshire, writes Edgar Forbes. (more)

On the press, Kim Fletcher: If newspapers were more like supermarkets ...
From Media Guardian. Posted April 3 2006, 1.00am
On the press, Kim Fletcher: So your circulation is slipping away, your advertisers are losing interest and young analysts say you are in a dying industry. (more)

Peter Cole on The Press
From The Independent. Posted March 19 2006, 12.00am
Rupert Murdoch has become reflective of late. Three score and 15 years seem to have brought out both his contemplative and his visionary sides. In his speech at the Stationers' Hall in London last week he talked about the digital future while at the same time striking a fin de si�cle note. "Power is moving away from the old elite in our industry," he said, "the editors, the chief executives and, let's face it, the proprietors." (more)

Grampian TV man rejoins the Press & Journal
From Press Gazette. Posted January 19 2006, 12.00am
Bert Ovenstone has returned to the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, after a 16- year spell with Grampian Television, writes Hamish Mackay. (more)

Donald Trelford On The Press
From The Independent. Posted December 19 2005, 12.00am
ournalists on The Daily Telegraph should know something important about John Bryant, who has been their editor as well as their editor-in-chief since Martin Newland's surprise resignation last month - he's a marathon man. (more)

Stephen Glover On The Press
From The Independent. Posted December 12 2005, 12.00am
Two former Daily Mirror journalists face jail following a trial at Southwark crown court and a six-year criminal investigation by the Department of Trade. James Hipwell, one of two so-called "City Slickers" on the Mirror, was last week found guilty by a jury of market manipulation; the other, Anil Bhoyrul, had already admitted to a similar, though lesser, charge. (more)

Private! Inquiry into self-regulation of the press
From The Independent. Posted January 1 1970, 12.59am
MPs are once again summoning the journalists and their regulators to give account of themselves. The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has decided to have a short inquiry into self-regulation of the press and the efficacy of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) Code of Practice. Why? (more)

Stephen Glover on the Press Why Israel but not Burma? The NUJ's boycott astonishes me
From The Independent. Posted January 1 1970, 12.59am
The motion by the National Union of Journalists to boycott Israeli goods is in one sense absurd. It is as meaningful as Vanuatu declaring war on the United States. (more)

The Press - At the sharp end of London's free-for-all
From The Independent. Posted January 1 1970, 12.59am
Older Independent readers will have had a knowing chuckle at reports of the dirty tricks campaign being waged against thelondonpaper (which I edit) over the past month. Last week thelondonpaper won the Grand Prix for Innovation at the 2007 Newspaper Awards (based largely on our success in attracting 18-35 year old readers back to reading newspapers). Meanwhile, Associated Newspapers was distributing selective footage of three rogue (now ex-) distributors dumping some of our copies. This, and the "knocking ads" that followed, will be particularly familiar to anyone who worked on Robert Maxwell's short-lived London Daily News or the London Evening Standard of the 80s. (more)

Donald Trelford on The Press Tabloid vengeance and editorial triumphalism: it's the day of rest
From The Independent. Posted January 1 1970, 12.59am
There may have been a touch of sentimentality about the London Press Club's decision to make The Mail on Sunday its Sunday Newspaper of the Year on its 25th anniversary. But the paper has been so consistently sharp, so consistently bright, and so consistently itself - "a newspaper not a snoozepaper", as its early promotional campaign promised - that few journalists will begrudge it the honour. (more)

Steven Glover on The Press
From The Independent. Posted January 1 1970, 12.59am
The extraordinary thing about Tony Blair's attack on the "feral" media was its ignorance. The shameless re-writing of history may have been deliberate, but there was also what one might call a genuine naivety, as though the author of the piece had a dim understanding of how newspapers work. (more)

Customer losses increase the pressure on Virgin
From The Times. Posted January 1 1970, 12.59am
Virgin Media lost more than 70,000 customers in its second quarter, it emerged yesterday, even as the group pledged that it would not get distracted by its sale process. (more)