Media Brief
I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.
(This will be my last Media Brief for a fortnight.)
Alexander Lebedev, the owner of the Independent and London's Evening Standard, has promised to help expose "corruption on a global scale". The Russian tycoon and former KGB officer said the press was "a defence against tyranny, corruption and injustice". , he was speaking last night at the opening of the Society of Editors annual conference in Glasgow.
The 91Èȱ¬'s world news editor Jon Williams has blogged to explain why the 91Èȱ¬ delayed reporting the release of Paul and Rachel Chandler, the British hostages held by Somali pirates. He said an injunction was imposed to protect the safety of the Chandlers - and prevented the media from referring even to its existence. "While we're not in the business of censoring the news, no story is worth a life - we accepted the argument of the family, their lawyers and the judge that to do otherwise would jeopardise the safety of Paul and Rachel Chandler. Some other news organisations did not."
that if he had been in Andy Coulson's position as editor of the News of the World when one of its staff was jailed for hacking into voice messages, he would have known all about it. But he says Coulson is nothing like him - and he believes "101% that he hadn't got the vaguest idea where the source was."
The Daily Mail used to be a "digital laggard", , but now Mail Online is the UK's most popular newspaper website.
"So happy to be alive - so happy to be free" is the Daily Mail's headline, describing Paul and Rachel Chandler's feelings after they were freed. But The Times says the paying of a large ransom creates a "terrible precedent". 91Èȱ¬ newspapers review.
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