Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have just conferred with the Minister for Justice and we expect to have the new defamation legislation published in the new year, and we hope it will be enacted later in the year. I saw the letter that Deputy Cannon saw too. It is signed by the Coalition for Women in Journalism; the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, named after the Maltese journalist who was murdered; the European Federation of Journalists; the International Press Institute; and Reporters Without Borders, among others. I have been in the Dáil for 16 or 17 years. I cannot remember a time when international bodies like this had to write to the leader of a major political party in this State expressing their concerns about an attack on press freedom. It is quite a serious matter and deserves attention.

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