Quote, unquote: Do we want attack dogs? Or lap dogs?

"At some stage soon, before a whole generation of journalists are criminalised, politicians are going to need to make a choice. Do we want to encourage a robust, probing and risk-taking national press which holds the public sector to account?

"Or would we rather have a legion of placid copy-takers on Fleet Street, meticulous in their adherence to the letter and spirit of the law and happy to simply take down the official story from the PR officers who vastly outnumber them."

-- Dominic Ponsford, the editor of Britain's Press Gazette, blogging about the dawn arrest of a  Sun news reporter Rhodri Phillips in connection with a pay-for-information investigation that has blossomed out from the News International investigation about phone-hacking. So far, 21 journalists have been arrested, charged and bailed as part of the Elveden bribes inquiry.