Andrew Neil...

The usual press-hating politicians are up in arms about the Daily Mirror paying Tony Martin £125,000 to tell his story on his release from prison this week. Home Office ministers are even talking about producing new laws to ban convicted criminals from selling their stories, and the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) is investigating the Mirror payment.

The PCC is bound to investigate the Mirror under its own code of conduct. I have no problem with that: editor Piers Morgan has a perfectly good public-interest defence.

But I'm concerned about the PCC's judgment, which has been all over the place recently. It has just condemned The Guardian for paying a small sum to a prisoner for an article on Jeffrey Archer's time in prison while exonerating the News of the World for paying £10,000 to a conman who was arranging the kidnap of Victoria Beckham.

The PCC code generally forbids newspapers from writing cheques to convicted criminals for their stories "except where the material concerned ought to be published in the public interest". In crime-rampant Britain, where the police seem more concerned about speeding motorists than violent burglars, I can think of few matters of greater public interest than how far you can go to defend your house from unwanted intruders. Martin should be nobody's hero, but his story - how he was driven to take the law into his own hands after the police appeared powerless to stop the perpetual attacks on his property - deserves to be in the public domain to inform the national debate.

The danger is that the PCC will feel compelled to condemn the Mirror to assuage all the noise emanating from publicity-seeking politicians. Labour MP Chris Bryant has accused the Mirror of "condoning a lawless society". Actually, society would be less lawless if politicians made more of an effort to get a grip on crime. But Bryant has other fish to fry. He recently made a fool of himself in front of the cameras by accusing the BBC of producing an Enron-style annual report. He was quickly forced to retract. But his new comments show he is still bidding for the crown of Parliament's premier anti-media loudmouth.

An obscure junior Home Office minister, Caroline Flint, is also using the row to make headlines. She says the Government is looking at fresh ways "to prevent offenders profiting from their crimes by writing or selling stories about them."

Perhaps she does not know that her own department carried out such an inquiry only a few years ago and concluded that there should be no change in the law because it would conflict too much with freedom of expression. Or perhaps she does know - but likes the publicity that is generated by threatening to crack down on the press.

Freedom of expression is always the first casualty when politicians are on a witch-hunt against the press. There are already several laws to stop convicted criminals from prospering from ill-gotten gains. But the law requires each case to be judged on its merits.

Martin has done his time for the manslaughter of a burglar and the wounding of his accomplice. He is not going to use his £125,000 to finance a life of crime. He will use the cheque to pay for the sort of elaborate security for his house that past experience suggests would be prudent - and that recent death threats against him demand.

As for the Mirror editor, Morgan postured as a Leftie peacenik during the Iraq war. But when it comes to crime he is a hardliner who knows that Martin's story will chime with his readers' belief that victims of crime are now regularly accorded fewer rights than criminals. After flying in the face of his readers' views on so many issues - at some cost to his circulation - it will be good for Morgan and his organ to be back on their side again.

Trust me, I'm not a politician

Home secretary David Blunkett agonises in Monday's Times that "trust in politicians, but also trust in the media" is being undermined in the current spat between the Government and the BBC. Leader of the House Peter Hain, writing in the same vein in a Sunday newspaper, calls for a "truce" (but not before accusing the BBC of "tabloid" journalism). Both ministers are deluding themselves if they think the media are in the same leaky boat as the politicians.

Politicians console themselves with the fact that most polls show journalists to be held in almost the same regard as themselves (we're both at the bottom of trusted professions, alongside estate agents). But recent authoritative research provides a very different picture if you ask people about trust in particular kinds of journalist.

Broadcast journalists come out at the top of all professions, with 82 per cent of the public trusting their work. Broadsheet journalists come in at a pretty healthy 65 per cent. Red-top tabloid journalists, however, are trusted by less than 10 per cent - about the same dismal level as the politicians.

This research is validated by an NOP poll published this week, which showed that 54 per cent trusted the BBC in the current row versus just 20 per cent trusting ministers. Despite calling for truces, ministers seem addicted to the rows surrounding Dr David Kelly's suicide - they keep returning to the matter in ways which only inflame things.

It is an axiom of politics that you should try to downgrade issues you cannot hope to win in the court of public opinion. Ministers should take note and change the subject. Lord Hutton's inquiry will give them more bad publicity than ever - they should enjoy a few weeks of calm before the storm.

Big Brother's down but not out

Good news: the finale of Big Brother last Friday night pulled in two million fewer viewers than the last episode of the previous series, while registered votes were only half last time's. All of which suggests that Big Brother is not quite the ratings winner it used to be for Channel 4, raising hopes that the format may be ditched.

Bad news: the broadcaster is committed to at least another two series as part of a four-year deal. Worse news: there's talk of reviving Blake's Seven, the BBC's answer to Star Trek, which was famed for its shaky studio sets and cheap special effects. This time, however, the programme might be given a proper budget.

Campbell's next move

Most journalists now take it for granted that Alastair Campbell is not long for 10 Downing Street. But what will he do next? I suspect that for all his bustups, Alastair would like to be back in newspapers one day. The Mirror is his emotional home - but The Times or Sunday Times would be the natural place for the serialisation of his potentially explosive diaries.

Because he also owns HarperCollins, Rupert Murdoch could offer a combined book-and-serial rights deal worth the £1 million Campbell is said to be looking for. But there could be more than that - there is talk in Wapping of a senior management position, as well. Watch this space.

Desmond is a pussycat

Channel 4's The Real Richard Desmond, a documentary to be broadcast tomorrow, tells us very little we don't know already about the Express proprietor - except that his PR man, Brian MacLaurin, has worked wonders with him. An interview with Desmond forms the spine of the programme and no matter how provocative or controversial the interview questions, he never loses his cool, staying calm, smiling, even benign.

Instead of exploding when it is put to him that he used to relieve other kids of their lunch money while at school, he simply chortles: "That's just folklore". He even says that he's got used to being called "a pornographer". On Thursday's showing, he's actually a pussycat - or on some very special chill pills.