For the record: 05/04/2010

'An Orwellian ministry of truth' – the Lord Chief Justice's depiction of a libel court without the defence of fair comment.

Political intrigue

There is umbrage in the Westminster lobby about Press Gazette's list of Britain's top 50 political reporters, which places the BBC's Andrew Marr at No 1.

After a year of political scoops, The Daily Telegraph is cruelly snubbed with political editor Andrew Porter ranked only 20th (behind three each from The Times and The Guardian and two from The Independent). How many MPs were on the panel? Prolific bloggers like Paul Waugh of the London Evening Standard (9th) and Sam Coates of The Times (11th) come out well, unlike radio journalists. Today's John Humphrys scrapes in at No 44. There's a whiff of the St James's Club, with only four women on the list, including Alex Forrest of ITV News.

Gladiatorial battle

The director Sir Ridley Scott, who cut his teeth making television commercials such as the public's all-time favourite, the Hovis boy on his bike round, is the star attraction at June's Cannes advertising festival. Sir Ridley's appearance on a panel discussing product placement is being sensationally billed as "a no-holds-barred cage fight", which I suppose is appropriate for the director of Gladiator.

Suckers' punch

While on films, the DVD release of Starsuckers is promoted with a viral "advert" for Max Clifford featuring secretly taken footage of the publicist boasting about how he keeps clients out of the media. Starsuckers' PR people claim the clip is "Max Clifford's least favourite YouTube video" but in reality, it really is just an ad for Clifford. It even includes his phone number.

Max factor

Attempts by Max Mosley to persuade the European Court of Human Rights to make journalists give two days' notice of stories about the misbehaviour of public figures is alarming NGOs. Global Witness, which investigates corrupt use of natural resources, claims Mosley's tactics will encourage injunctions and inhibit its work, such as exposing the Congo elite's use of oil resources to fund spending on designer goods.