Annie Machon

Formerly MI5, currently a director of LEAP

Last week it emerged that the US Department of Justice monitored the telephones of, gasp, journalists working at Associated Press. Apparently this was done to try to investigate who might have been the source for a story about a foiled terrorist plot in Yemen.

Grant Feller

Writer, Editor, Media Consultant, Pretend Cowboy, www.gf-media.co.uk

I wonder whether the people who have created a monster ever come to regret it? It's a question as relevant to UKIP's Nigel Farage as it is to one of o...

James Alan Anslow

Media Academic

As an activity, journalism cannot and should not be licensed by the state or any professional body, any more than art or political protest should.

Jacob Greaves

Reporter and broadcaster who’s spent four years in Russia

Russia is a country that's never short of jaw-dropping stories. Be it Moscow traffic police calling on drivers to form a human road block to stop a f...

Jon Wilks

Award-winning editor, award-ogling musician. Heart in Hampshire, legs in London

My advice to any company involved in the content land grab would be to find themselves an experienced sub, and do it quickly - before they all retrain and their indispensable talents are lost to us forever.

Sara Khan

Director of Inspire, a human rights organisation which works to address the inequalities facing British Muslim women

We don't ask whether Cameron, Hazell, Hall or Savile, were motivated by white culture or their religion yet every newspaper I've read or news item I've watched, has consistently referred to the Oxford groomers' culture and religion.

Nicola Carter

Senior planner, Rufus Leonard

This latest development hasn't made him any friends, but is this really a 'Big, Fat, Marketing mistake' (Fox News), or brand management in action?

Hayley Morgan

Bookseller, blogger, author and heathen

When I was small, smaller than I am now, I learned a wise lesson from my Godmother, who, despite being very learned and cultured, loved nothing more than watching Blind Date on a Saturday night. At first I wondered why; eventually I realised she was interested in people for people's sake.

Hilary Aked

Freelance writer and researcher; doctoral candidate at the University of Bath researching the pro-Israel lobby

Student Rights is seeking to police, not 'protect' students and its activities should be seen as part of the 'Cold War on British Muslims'. Its activities feed into an increasingly entrenched discourse of Islamophobia endorsed by much of the government and mainstream media. Universities should be wary of its lobbying efforts, the media should interrogate its misleading research and FOSIS should be commended for standing up to its bullying.

Ella Pawlik

Writes things

We react to stressful situations in two ways. Fight or flight. We deal with a problem face on and fight it: become warriors for our cause. Or we run because we're scared to look back at what is, or was...or what could have been or might be.

Brendan O'Neill

Editor of spiked, a columnist for the Big Issue, and a blogger for the Daily Telegraph

How daring, really, is Angelina Jolie's decision to write about her recent operation? Is she really rebelling against celebrity culture or conforming to it? I think it's the latter

Oana Romocea

Communications Specialist and Researcher in Migration and Media Studies

It is baffling how immigration has changed the game in British politics these days. There are more fundamentally important issues facing British society, most notably a stalled economy that has the country on the edge of a triple-dip recession. Yet, the immigration threat, and the supposed ills it has unleashed on Britain, has gripped the public imagination.

Lisa Clarke

Feminist activist with L plates

Just perhaps seeing a young woman in just her pants, in the newspaper everyday affected me as a child and still does and perhaps I want a better future?

Professor Brian Cathcart

Director of Hacked Off

We have a Royal Charter that has been approved by every single party in Parliament. It is backed by the mass of public opinion. And it is based on the recommendations of a year-long, judge-led public inquiry of remarkable thoroughness. And now the people who run some of our big newspaper corporations - an industry condemned by that inquiry for 'wreaking havoc in the lives of innocent people' - say they have made a concession towards it.

Anthony Risicato

Interactive industry veteran, focused on marrying marketers to technology, brands to results, and building high-performance teams across a variety of disciplines

My advice if you want to succeed as an entrepeneur? Be honest. About what you can do and what the market really needs. The world will not change what it does for you, but you will have to change what you do for the world!

Sue Brooks

Director of Video Transformation at AP

More than a quarter of people told us that they'd go elsewhere if video wasn't available at their preferred news source. This isn't surprising. Remember how "chimney cam" became compulsive viewing as we waited while the conclave elected a new pontiff? Now imagine it without the chimney. Or the cam.