Abstract
‘We identified what we wanted to amend and have made fundamental and far-reaching improvements that will reinforce Ipso's power to carry out its work free from interference by those we regulate or by parliament. These reforms will offer more protection to the public and allow us to provide a more effective service.’
— Sir Alan Moses, chairman, Independent Press Standards Organisation
‘The vice-like grip of the large newspaper groups over Ipso appointments, over its constitution and over its rulebook continues. The more that Ipso over-claim for these changes, the more it will seem that it is merely noise to disguise the fact that they remain wholly controlled by the large newspapers and are hopelessly ineffective at providing remedy for victims of press abuse.’
— Evan Harris, joint executive director of Hacked Off
‘How powerful are they? Even as the newspaper era is declared neardead, they stay far more influential than falling sales suggest. (I say they, not we, because The Guardian is always a puny counterweight to these massed ranks on the right). The Today programme solemnly reads out newspaper headlines each morning because, in print or online, the agenda is still mainly set by what used to be Fleet Street.’
— Polly Toynbee, writing in The Guardian
‘I hope that we will fight like crazy to make sure that the voice of the public, who want a strong BBC that is universal, that is distinctive, that is independent, is heard – and that's our main job this year. What I'm saying is, for all those people who are angry – there are a lot of people who are angry out there – concentrate on building the protection into the next charter. Channel all that anger towards getting protection for the BBC so it can make do and mend itself.’
— BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead, talking to Radio Times
