A Tricky Dilemma for the Eastern Daily Press

There will be much scratching of heads at the editorial press conference at the Eastern Daily Press this morning. Fresh from their triumph of getting an interview with Charles Clarke (which got huge national coverage), the vexed question of the PFI at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital has raised its ugly head this morning. The Public Accounts Committee has released a damning report in which the Chairman Edward Leigh says "My committee would not expect to see appearing before it another accounting officer defending what we believe to be the unacceptable face of capitalism. Such a face was shown by this private sector consortium in its dealings with the public sector." A reference to Octagon, the hospital's PFI partners. Meat and drink to a local newspaper which has campaigned against this PFI deal for some time! Well, up to a point, your Honour. The only problem now is that the Norwich & Norfolk University Trust Hospital's chief executive is former Tory MP David Prior (pictured) who leads a double life as the EDP's star columnist. But even more worryingly for the newspaper's editor Peter Franzen, there is another slight problem for him to juggle with. The Chairman of Octagon, the people referred to as the 'unacceptable face of capitalism', is a Norfolk businessman called Richard Jewson. His other job? Chairman of the Archant Group, the company which owns - guess what - the Eastern Daily Press! Astonishingly, he is also the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk, a position he was appointed to despite not having been on the original shortlist. I shall be looking very closely to see a) if the EDP declares an interest in any story they print on the subject so its readers know the score and b) if its editorials show any sign of pulling their punches.

UPDATE: The EDP has THIS story on its website, which is quite detailed. However, there is no declaration of interest and the story ends with the line "Octagon was unavailable for comment yesterday". Er, couldn't the EDP have picked the phone up to their chairman?