We are all journalists now

As the cops round up journalists, Trevor Kavanagh’s protest in the Sun has aroused amazement and some scorn. ‘Witch-hunt has put us behind ex-Soviet states on Press freedom’ — ran the headline, and the gist of the complaint among my friends was that it was a self-pitying and self-aggrandising piece of work.

Whatever you think of the Sun or Kavanagh, however, it is worth hearing him out for three reasons.

1. Kavanagh is being brave. We ought to applaud Hugh Grant for standing up to the tabloids even though he knows they will give him a bad press for the rest of his career. (You will have noticed that nearly everyone else in the celeb pack has let Grant and a few others fight their battles for them while they cower in a prudent silence.) Similarly, we ought to applaud Kavanagh for standing up to his employers — something hardly any journalist or politician has done since Mrs Thatcher’s day.