Ms Susan McKay:

I do not think it is really for the Press Council of Ireland or the Press Ombudsman to try to dictate to politicians or public figures as to what route they should take. All we can do is strongly encourage them and also publicly make the point that it is not in the interests of democracy to put newspapers and broadcasters under the kind of pressure that our colleagues here have described today.

It is a threat to democracy when we hear newspaper people talking about how they cannot pursue investigations because of the chill effect of the fact that they know they simply cannot afford to defend them. Some of the evidence that has been given by the editors today is very disturbing - getting calls from lawyers as they approach deadlines to say if they publish something, they are going to sue them without even specifying what it is. That is clearly a misuse of the law. We can draw attention to that, but it would not be our place to advocate that there should be any kind of a charter on it.

I would say, and it needs to be said, that we think this applies equally to all parties and all public figures. We are not, as some are, singling out any particular party or individuals with regard to this. However, it is very disquieting to hear the editors talking in the way they have talked today about the chill effect that even the threat of litigation can have. I have experience of that as a journalist in having stories just dropped or changed simply because the effort required to defend them would be such that it would be out of proportion.