Clearly, Eric Pickles wants to be the local and regional newspapers' pin-up boy. In a posting today on the Conservative Home website, he writes:
"I'm determined to strike a blow for freedom of the local press who can't compete with a bottomless pit of taxpayer funds. That's why I've proposed tightening up the rules governing councils promotion and publicity."
The communities and local government secretary is saying once again - and with passion - that councils publishing their own papers are "squeezing the free and independent press out of the market."
He writes: "If local newspapers disappear, where will residents get an independent, thoughtful critique of how their councillors are behaving and how their council is performing? Certainly not from the town hall Pravda where glossy print meets spin."
He chose to do so today because the consultation period for his proposals to tighten rules on council publications closed this week.
"I don't think... there will be any great loss to British journalism if councils can't print their freesheets more than once a quarter," he writes.
"Propaganda dressed up as journalism not only wastes money but undermines a free press and a healthy democracy."
This comes in the light of his statement - which I carry in a posting below - about his rejection of a council's plea to charge newspapers for Freedom of Information requests.
But the industry wants still more from Pickles. The Newspaper Society yesterday revealed that it has asked Pickles to ban all third party advertising from council publications.
The NS has called for new rules to be backed by effective enforcement and suggested a number of revisions to the draft local authority publicity code to prevent councils getting round restrictions.
I rather think that Pickles will go for this too. It appears that we have a modern John Wilkes in government.
