Appearing at the Leveson Inquiry, Peter Oborne cited the the News International party conference, where “every” cabinet member would be in attendance, as an example of the powerful taking exploiting opportunities to favour certain media folk.

Those who tried to report objectively and fairly  were “frozen out, bullied, victimised… not given information”.

He said the MPs’ expenses “scam” had been ignored by the press for years and claimed newspapers’ silence over phone-hacking before it became a national scandal was down to “pretty well an omerta in Fleet Street”.

In his statement to the inquiry, he said: “The House of Commons used to enforce a system of social apartheid between reporters and politicians. It is a great pity this no longer exists.”

He also said he was “astonished” that the Commons failed to take “severe action” against ministers who leaked announcements to the press yet to be declared to the House.

“A great deal of George Osborne’s recent budget appears to have been handed over to his allies in the press and media,” he said. “Sixty years ago the Labour Chancellor Hugh Dakon resigned after inadvertently handing one tiny snippet to the Evening Standard as he walked into the chamber to give his budget speech.”

(Source: Press Gazette)

The last series of I’m Alan Partridge aired on the BBC in 2002 but the two parties have been unable to reconcile their differences since he told his commissioning editor to “smell my cheese, you mother”. A man with the uncanny ability to recognise classic intercourse when he sees it knows never to go back.

Two one-hour specials and a adaptation of his online series, Mid Morning Matters, will be screened on Sky Atlantic after a deal struck with Steve Coogan’s production company, Baby Cow.

Partridge will invite viewers on a tour of his beloved home county, Norfolk in Welcome to the Places of my Life, and feature in an interview for a local book club by Chris Beal, played by Robert Popper.

Partridge creator Coogan said: “Alan has been off the TV for too long but he is even more excited than me about his chance to have a second bite of the cherry. Alan feels the second decade of the millennium is the right time.”

Sky will also screen Baby Cow’s animated children’s series Uncle Wormsley’s Christmas, narrated by Coogan, as well a two-part look at the comedian’s stand-up tour of Australia and New Zealand.

(Source: MediaGuardian)

Broadcasters – who feared being seen as an ‘extra arm’ of the state – won the appeal not to disclose 100 hours of unbroadcast footage after Mr Justice Eady ruled that police needed clear evidence of criminality when applying for production orders against the media.

Referring to the previous ruling made by Chelmsford Court, Eady said: “The judge should have feared for the loss of trust in those hitherto believed to be neutral observers if such observers maybe too readily compelled to hand over their material. It is the neutrality of the press which affords them protection and augments their ability freely to obtain and disseminate visual recording of events.”

ITN chief executive John Hardie hailed the ruling as a “landmark decision” and “legal recognition of the separate roles of the police and independent news organisations”.

(Source: MediaGuardian)

In its 5th May edition, the Economist published a feature about the integrity of the global oil markets with a focus on a company called Gunvor. Though few have ever heard of it, it is the world’s fourth-biggest oil trader and is, says the weekly, the Kremlin’s favourite company in that sector.

The Economist suspects that Gunvor has been manipulating the price of Russian oil down so that it can earn inflated profits when it later sells the crude on the international market.

The price for the commodity in question (‘Urals blend’ is the trade name) is set by a media company called Platts, part of the McGraw-Hill media group.

On its website Platts says that it “…publishes news, research, commentary, market data and analysis, and more than 9,000 price assessments daily that are widely used as benchmarks in the physical and futures markets”. As well as covering oil, Platts is a leading provider of energy, petrochemicals and metals information for traders in those commodities.

We’ve said it before: the trade press, especially in this case, is an extremely powerful business tool and instrument – not only for companies but also governments. But it is not perfect, anymore than is the Economist. In this case the latter reckons that Gunvor manipulated the former for one of two reasons. The first was to gain commercial advantage; the second was to commit a fraud upon Russian taxpayers.

As you would expect, the President of Platts, Larry Neal, has mounted a robust defence of the integrity of his business but outsiders may wonder how on earth could something as sensitive as oil pricing be in the apparent control of a publishing organisation?

The answer is, of course, that media companies with no axe of their own to grind, are almost certainly the best possible guardians of such things. In this specific case the facts, and arguments, will undoubtedly rumble on and on but whatever the outcome of that, an independent publisher will always be a safer pair of hands than any self-policing industry body.

Just look at FIFA and the IOC for the evidence to support this argument.

It means direct savings to “scope and content” have been scaled back from £8.5m to £2.1m.

Controversial plans to share afternoon shows among the BBC’s 40 local stations have been dropped, with savings instead directed at an all-England programme broadcast on weekday evenings from 7-10pm.

Afternoon sharing will be “limited” to a small number of stations and sport and community output has been given “more protection”. The Beeb has also decided to reduce “layers of management” in order to keep more “on the ground” journalists.

BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten indicated in January that cuts would be revised following widespread criticism of the efficency savings, which were announced as part of the BBC’s Delivering Quality First initiative..

Following the new announcement, he said: “This is the end of a lengthy process for the BBC, designed to ensure we can meet a tough but fair licence settlement for the next five years. Delivering the changes we have approved today will be challenging, but they are necessary.

“We’ve listened carefully to the views of those who care about the BBC, and taken our time to get this right, encouraging the executive to amend plans where we think they need further thought, as the changes to local radio proposals show.

“Our focus now is to ensure that audiences notice as little change as possible to the services they know and love, and we will be monitoring audience reactions very carefully through our ongoing programme of reviews and reports.”

(Source: MediaGuardian)

Blue Peter, a presence on the channel for 60 years, is among the programmes moving to CBBC which, since the digital switchover, is available to all.

The BBC has been keen to point out that investment in children’s programming “remains a cornerstone of the BBC’s public service offering”.

In other BBC-cuts related news, the corporation has eased the burden on local radio stations by halving the amount of cuts following outrage from MPs and listeners.

It was originally proposed that £15m-worth of savings could be found in local radio programming, by cutting staff numbers and sharing afternoon shows across stations. However, that figure has been reduced to £8m.

(Source: MediaGuardian)

A 2007 quote from legendary war photographer Horst Faas, who died aged 79 last week. (Source: Press Gazette)

Natasha Pearlman is leaving the editor’s chair at the Sun‘s Fabulous magazine to take the same role at Elle. (Source: Press Gazette)

A row has prompted Yahoo to part company with chief executive Scott Thompson after less than six months, over an allegedly fake computer science degree on his CV. Ross Levinsohn, the former News Corp executive who oversaw the ill-fated purchase of MySpace, takes over with immediate effect. (Source: MediaGaurdian)

Wimbledon-based agency Sportsbeat has bolstered its team ahead of the Olympics with the appointments of Ric Sumner, former editor of the Oxford Journal, and former Grimsby Telegraph sports editor Paul Smith. Sumner assumes the role of senior news editor. (Source: HTFP)

Former Mischief director Fay Burgin has been hired to head PR at Virgin Atlantic Airways, based in Crawley. (Source: PR Week)

The Conservative Party has confirmed the departure of Henry Macrory, deputy political director of the CCHQ press team. The former Daily Star political editor has been with the party for several years. (Source: PR Week)

Peter Bingle has left Bell Pottinger Public Affairs, where he was chairman, to reportedly form his own consultancy. (Source: PR Week)

Liverpool FC has parted company with its comms director of 16 years, Ian Cotton, by “mutual consent”. (Source: PR Week)

Rupert Trefgarne is the latest recruit in College Group’s restructure of its financial PR business. He joins as a partner after six months at Kreab Gavin Anderson spent as a director. (Source: PR Week)

Chris Gottlieb has left the BBC after a decade to become comms director at Oxfam. (Source: PR Week)

Michelle McGlocklin, UK MD and chairman of Weber Shandwick’s European tech practice, has left after more than 20 years with the agency. (Source: PR Week)

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has appointed Anne Godfrey, currently head of the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC), as its new chief executive. She replaces James Sutton, who returns to his previous role as director of strategic development. (Link: Marketing Week)

Turner Media Innovations, the ad sales arm of Turner Broadcasting, has appointed Ian Davis, formerly managing director of Optimal Media Sales, to the new role of business development director. (Link: Media Week)

Former Kerry Foods chief marketing officer Phil Chapman has switched to join rival Kraft Foods. He started his new role heading up Kraft’s Central and Eastern Europe chocolate division earlier this month. (Source: Brand Republic)