UK press freedom watchdog rings alarm bell

Sir Christopher Meyer, the chairman of the PRess Complaints Commission, reckons that things are moving in the wrong direction in the UK - what with proposed changes to the Freedom of Information Act, inconsistent application of the Data Protection Act and their general dislike of the press. The Guardian reports the story here; with some luck, the full text of his lecture at the LSE's POLIS institute - and perhaps even a podcast - will appear somewhere here.

He is reported to have said that government has become less open since his days at No. 10 in the mid 1990s, and that part of the problem is that politicians now actually overestimate the power of the press: "politicians believe that if they don't get a favourable write-up, it is the end of the world." Isn't that true though - once the media have it in for you, that's it (Prescott being the exception to the rule, I'd say)...