Quotes of the week - Riots fallout, alcohol row, Google buys Motorola
Hapless Facebook users get jailed for riot pages, the alcohol industry hits back at claims it is using social media to target kids and Google gobbles up Motorola's mobile business.
"The riots have been a PR disaster for London and its leaders. As we address the underlying causes of the riots, we must also invest in rebuilding this great city’s reputation with business and tourism alike. We have the most talented PR in the world, let’s use it."
Francis Ingham, chief executive of the Public Relations Consultants Association, believes the capital will have to draw on its PR acumen to repair its image following the recent riots.
"If we cast our minds back just a few days to last week and recall the way in which technology was used to spread incitement and bring people together to commit acts of criminality, it is easy to understand the four year sentences that were handed down in court today."
Assistant police constable Phil Thompson attempts to justify the controversial four-year prison sentences handed to Jordan Blackshaw, 20, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, who set up Facebook pages calling for riots in their hometowns of Northwich and Warrington.
"In Britain, what the press does, if they really want to get at someone, is they challenge their motives and their integrity. They try to suggest that they're not the person that they say they are... And they try to take pieces of people's characters and destroy those pieces so they can make their political point as a result of that. You can't say it is not hurtful."
Former prime minister Gordon Brown takes a swipe at the British press.
"Most of the leading drinks companies have a presence on Facebook or Twitter, plus their own websites which often contain content likely to be attractive to young people, such as games and videos, competitions and prizes. There's a real danger of children and young people being exposed to alcohol marketing on such sites, particularly given that age verification mechanisms are largely ineffective."
Don Shenker, the chief executive of Alcohol Concern, argues that drinks companies are targeting youngsters through social media.
"It is entirely misleading to suggest that alcohol marketing is being targeted at under 18s - the UK already has some of the strictest rules in place around digital media to prevent alcohol being marketed to children or in a way that might appeal to them. It is perfectly legitimate for drinks companies to use social media to market their products to adult consumers provided there are clear safeguards in place - which there are.”
Sarah Hanratty, head of external affairs for drinks industry regulator The Portman Group, hits back at Alcohol Concern's claims.
"The announcement today has stunned our members in Warrington, Sale and Northwich as it came unheralded. It is highly regrettable that the company did not seek to engage with our chapel well ahead in a bid to find other, less damaging ways forward before it was too late and business trends became unacceptable in the company’s eyes."
Newsquest's decision to axe more editorial jobs in the north west is slammed by NUJ organiser Chris Morley.
“The combination of Google and Motorola will not only supercharge Android, but will also enhance competition and offer consumers accelerating innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences. I am confident that these great experiences will create huge value for shareholders.”
Google CEO Larry Page eulogises Motorola after buying the company's mobile business.
"By the end of the year we believe that we will have a sufficiently engaged audience who will then be prepared to start paying."
Newsquest Herald & Times managing director Tim Blott tells The Drum about the Glasgow publisher's plans to start charging for its content.
"We have come up with a structure that does now bring down the cost base to make it viable in a way that hasn't happened before, and I think it will be fantastic. Anywhere outside the London broadcasting establishment, you find tremendous excitement for this because people know there is real hunger to have a better quality news service for what is happening on their doorstep."
Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt stands by his ambitions to introduce local television stations across Britain.
"The point of i’s individual columns is that they express individual views, often contradictory. There is no leader page, and we’d never presume to tell you what to think. Surely, we are all concise, quality grown-ups. But, if you still demur, then in the immortal words of the inimitable former editor of The Sun, Kelvin Mackenzie, to a complaining female reader: “You’re banned!”"
Don't send us any more accusatory letters, implores i executive editor Stefano Hatfield, who is sick of the paper being accused of political bias.