John McDonnell Quotes

I respect very much the role of the media in our society; I think they can be very, very helpful. They serve as a very useful check, sort of a watchdog over the actions of the government, and I respect that.

In the U.K., journalists are a little bit more ruthless than in Denmark. I have a feeling the tabloid press in the U.K. is pretty harsh.

I respect the press. The press and the media are a very useful watchdog to check the power of the government.

Press freedom has great virtues. It is not about irresponsible scandal-mongering, although that may be part of the picture. It is a means of revealing wrongdoing.

I don't owe the media anything.

I respect the media, and in return, they respect my privacy.

Forty years ago, we were on the tail of the Front Page era. There was a different point of view. Reporters and editors were more forgiving of public people. They didn't think they had to stick someone in jail to make a career.

I think the media needs a little criticizing now, as it did in the '80s, don't you?

In the U.K., the history of regulation, certainly regulation of the media, is one in which, time and again, successive governments lacked the 'bottle' to enforce the powers that were available to them.

Democracies succeed or fail based on their journalism.

We have got to make sure there is proper independent scrutiny and accountability for people in the press, just as there should be in any other industry where things go wrong. But let's not try and think it is for politicians or governments to tell people what they stick in newspapers. That is deeply illiberal.

The media does play a vital role in our democracy, and if we cannot depend on journalistic ethics, the nation's in trouble.

Well, thank God for a media that will ask questions.

I am not here to accuse the media of anything.

I am a passionate believer in freedom of speech. I would not support anything which would impinge on aggressive robust freedom of the British press, but when things go wrong and there has been outright illegality, there should be proper accountability.

The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.

It is the role of good journalism to take on powerful abusers, and when powerful abusers are taken on, there's always a bad reaction. So we see that controversy, and we believe that is a good thing to engage in.

One of the most powerful defences the media can offer for controversial actions is, of course, public interest.

The chief danger which threatens the influence and honor of the press is the tendency of its liberty to degenerate into license.

I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. That we need an independent media to hold people like me to account. […] power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.

The press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. One would then like to ask: by what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible?

The fact that there aren't more restrictions on the media is disgraceful.

Whoever said I hated the media?

I'm not worried by politics: I'm worried about the media.

We in the media accept the responsibility of what we do.