The Media Show

Steve Hewlett questions Keir Starmer DPP on his new public interest defence guidelines. How much reassurance can journalists draw from them in their day to day work. Do they make it more or less likely that a jury would support investigative journalists even if they break the law? How significant are this week's changes at the Johnston Press papers and the closure of Manchester's Channel M tv station? Some of the Johnston papers are going from daily to weekly and Channel M stopped work this week. Prof Tim Luckhurst is a former editor of the Johnston Press's paper The Scotsman and Ruth Spratt is former MD of Channel M and the Manchester Evening News and they discuss whether these are milestones on the way to a more secure future for local news - or not. The Times leader on Monday called for this weekend's Formula 1 race in Bahrain to be cancelled. Ed Gorman, the paper's deputy news editor and former F1 correspondent looks at the PR drive behind the event and at calls on the media to boycott coverage. And how does Simon Cowell come out of this week's serialisation of Tom Bower's unauthorised biography? Celebrity agent Jonathan Shalit gives his view. The producer is Simon Tillotson.