Mr. Gerry O'Regan:

All media, including newspapers, affect people and influence them. Obviously, in the case of the Irish Independentduring those times, of course, I would accept the newspaper may well have influenced people in many walks of life about various issues not only on the economy, but as regards such matters as politics, lifestyle and consumer affairs. In fact, basically, I suppose one could say newspapers are divided into two broad streams of content. First, they report the events that have happened. Second, one has various writers who, one could say, by definition, are trying to influence people in the sense they are trying to persuade them that their way of thinking is the correct way.