Getting stories from major companies or governments can turn into a game

It seems that everybody now has a highly sophisticated PR team looking to spin a story

It is one of the very first things you are taught as a journalist: make sure you contact X for a comment. You cannot say this about X without asking X for a response. This is X’s responsibility – what does X have to say?

This is not just about fairness and accuracy, it’s also the law. Journalists’ protection under UK law when writing about an individual or a company, relies on seeking, and publishing, their comment.

But that doesn’t mean the balance is right.