Last night, we had a brilliant session of Café Scientifique in Portsmouth, on food allergies. One of the issues brought up by the audience, however, was how to keep the press out of research.
I would argue the opposite, namely that it is vital to many researchers to build up a good relationship with the press!
Communication is an essential component of scientific research. Learning to communicate well is part of becoming a good scientist.
The topic of funding came up as well. How are you going to convince the public to fund your work if you are going to deprive it of the results unless perhaps through government guidelines the public may not even be aware of or not understand?
I admit that the UK 
does have a special problem when it comes to dealing with the press. There is the press and then there is the press. Most journalists I know in the Netherlands are extremely honest and driven people with a level of integrity that would put many of us to shame. The situation is different in the UK.
Yet I too used to flinch whenever I was introduced as a “journalist” when I was writing for the magazines of engineering companies. “I am not a journalist, I am a scientist, and I know how many of my colleagues think about journalists and I do not want any of them to think I am about to make their lives difficult as it would stop me from being able to do my work well.” (I should add that this was quite funny after first having had to overcome the hurdle of “Scientists don’t know how to write.”)
Journalists, however, do NOT write for academia. Scientists already do that themselves, in the many journals. Journalists write for their own target groups and they have to present the information you give them in such a way that it is palatable to that audience. Their duty and loyalty are with that audience, not with you.
Do not keep the press out of your research, I would argue, certainly not if it is in an area that is important to the public. Instead, pick one good science writer, a journalist specialized in your area, and learn to communicate to that journalist. Allow that person to be your channel to the public and trust that that person knows how to do his or her job better than you do.
In other words, do you really want to be seen as the person in the image below? Then don’t be like the person in the image below.
Be a bit more like this instead (without the grimace). Cooperating with other professionals because outreach is important. It will usually help you secure funding as well.
