Ms Susan McKay:

No, they are not regulated because a lot of those platforms refuse to accept that they are publishers. They say that they are just publishing content; the companies say other people are publishing it and that they are just a portal for it which is clearly not the case. They are publishers. Let us consider the recent publicity around Elon Musk and Twitter. It is very clear that they are also ideologically driven. That is an anomaly. They devour an absurd volume of the resources available for news in this country. They have some massive proportion of advertising on which newspapers traditionally relied. It is simply not possible for newspapers to continue to produce quality news in those circumstances. The quality of journalism in Ireland has remained extremely high. Annual figures from Reuters show there is a much higher belief in print and broadcast media in this country than in many other countries with a similar sort of democratic background. Standards are being kept up. One of the remarkable things about the annual reports of the Press Council and the Press Ombudsman is the quality of the photographs taken by members of the council. We cover complaints about photographs as well. The quality if there but it is extremely hard to sustain it. Something will have to be done to ensure that the funding base for print publications, whether online or actual printed newspapers, continues. Globally, more and more newspapers are giving up on having a printed publication. I am sure it is a trend that will be followed here as well.