(Credit: FSA.gov.uk)

The Guardian reported that Financial Services Authority chief executive Hector Sants wrote “to newspaper editors defending recommendations that urge companies to record conversations between executives and journalists.”  The FSA, which regulates UK’s financial services industry, also recommended that company employees have public relations persons review communication with journalists.

Sants was responding to four editors complaining about the FSA’s recommendations.

The four editors were Financial Times editor Lionel Barber, Guardian News & Media editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger, Thomson Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger, and Times editor James Harding, the Financial Times reported.

They wrote to  Sants “to protest against recommendations issued last month in an effort to staunch leaks to the media ahead of deals,” the FT reported.  The editors are reported to have written that the policy would “ultimately do more harm than benefit.”