The quality of journalism in British newspapers is declining and more mistakes are being made as editors sacrifice standards to keep up sales during the recession, an independent media charity said yesterday.

A review by the Media Standards Trust (MST), compiled in consultation with industry experts, said there was growing public cynicism about papers' reliability and about intrusive behavior which would only get worse in the economic downturn.

It concluded that Britain's system of press self-regulation was no longer able to cope with the situation.