This week in Press Gazette – Journalism Weekly: Casburn family says her jailing will scare off whistleblowers

1 Casburn family says her jailing will scare off whistleblowers. The brother of April Casburn, the Met officer convicted for allegedly offering to sell information to the News of the World (NoW), has warned whistleblowers will be too scared to approach journalists after his sister was jailed for 15 months.

“I find these extremely scary times for everybody in the UK. How is journalism going to function in the future? Any of your potential sources out there will be scared to pick up the phone and give you a call.”

3NI confirms Times titles web merger. News International has confirmed a merged web operation between The Times and Sunday Times.

“Responsibility for production and editorial control of our editions stays with the newspapers, which maintain editorial independence.”

4Degree applications up 1.4% following 20% dip. The chief executive of the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) has claimed that undergraduate applications for accredited courses are “strong” despite a general decline in applications of nearly 20 per cent since tuition fees went up in 2012.

“With the rise in tuition fees students are becoming more discerning and NCTJ-accreditation and qualifications are more important than ever."

6 Seven-minute phone-call that led to 15 months jail. The brother of convicted Met Police detective April Casburn believes his sister would have been celebrated instead of jailed if her case had been heard in the United States.

The feedback I get from the USA is that had any senator done what Prescott did, he would have been the one that had gone and the policeman who reported it would have been celebrated for protecting the United States on September 11 from terrorist attacks."

8Trinity’s ‘Newsroom 3.0’ plan rolls out nationwide. Journalists working across all Trinity Mirror’s regional papers are bracing themselves for the introduction of new working model called “Newsroom 3.0”.

“Most important of all would be what benefits there were for the company’s revenues? This is crucial if the company is to win the confidence of members in a roll out of Newsroom 3.0 given the investment of significant newsroom resource.”

9Lords put editors’ plans into doubt. Industry plans to create a new Leveson-compliant press regulator were thrown into doubt this week after Lords tacked on a ‘Leveson’ Law to the Defamation Bill.

“It’s unacceptable for Labour Peers to hold the government to ransom by injecting statutory regulation of the press into a vitally needed Defamation Bill that is meant to strengthen freedom of expression.

10Nick Davies: I was certain ‘false hope’ story was true. Last week Guardian journalist Nick Davies came top in Press Gazette’s list of UK investigative journalists. Here we publish the second part of an interview with one of the UK’s most famous –and controversial – journalists.

“The other thing that could have conceivably put us off was that News International were using their newspapers and Sky News to rubbish us. But one of the things that News International didn’t understand is that bullying is a bad way to treat people because what you guarantee is that they’re going to fight back.

13Dominic Ponsford: News Corp risks undermining our most basic principle. Any journalist who has trained in the last 20 years will recall learning about the case of Bill Goodwin – the 23-year-old reporter on The Engineer who courageously risked jail rather than identify the source of a leaked company document. He fought a seven-year legal battle and finally won a ruling at the European Court in 1996 which means all of us are better protected when it comes to defending the confidentiality of our sources.

14The legal case for protecting Casburn, by Tim Crook. The idea that a police detective rings up a journalist in a fit of pique while shopping to complain about force politics and should end up in prison for 15 months is beyond belief. I declare an interest in that I worked alongside the journalist who took the call, Tim Wood, in crime reporting for many years and so I’m biased in sympathising with his position.

16Six of the best with Peter Sands:The Northern Echo – Still the great daily of the north. My first splash byline was an investigation into corruption by the local Labour party. Best story worked on? The subs used a picture of the leader under the headline The Godfather. The writ hung over me for six years.

18German journalist avoids jail sentence. A journalist who paid for a sex video showing a top German actor in bed with two prostitutes has been acquitted of coercion charges that could have seen him jailed.

“It is an enormous relief that it has been thrown out and he has been cleared and we hope that this will now be the end of the matter although they can of course go on to make a further appeal.”

19Freelance of the week Keeping the wolf from the door? Just bite its head off. Freelancing is not for the faint-hearted, but don’t be afraid. Read lots, keep your ideas original, and never celebrate until the money is in the bank. Freelancing is about managing disappointment.

24 Axeginder: Collymore: You’re all non-sensiclistic snobs, you are!; Harvard professor: I’m not George of the jungle, actually; Former Manchester Evening News man cashes in as spin doc