The profile of the Society of Editors has been boosted by its work in the media on Freedom of Information, its outgoing president is claiming.

Keith Sutton, editorial director at Cumbrian Newspapers, says it means the Society is more widely known than ever before.

Work on FoI is just one part of the Society’s work – but one which has received the most public attention.

In his annual report as president, he said the voice of the Society had been “ringing out loud and clear” in defence of press freedom.

He said: “Not just our own trade newspapers but the media at large now routinely turn to the Society and its officers for our views and observations on key issues affecting the media and politics, the media and society and the media and the law.

“It is clear to me that the standing of the Society has been enhanced through an increase in our intellectual clout. This is apparent not only in our relevance to the very media we represent but also in the outpourings of our recent annual conferences and the early stirrings of the new website.

“We owe much to our expanding membership in academic journalism, in national newspapers and in broadcasting. We still have some way to go to achieve all our objectives in these areas.”

He said that work with the training of journalists, through society chairman Peter Cole’s training committee, and moves to meet the challenge of a multi-ethnic society, showed the society’s relevance to contemporary problems facing the industry.