PRESS freedom provisions in the European Convention on Human Rights should be incorporated into the Irish Constitution, according to the newspaper industry.
Both the publishers' organisation, the National Newspapers of Ireland, and the National Union of Journalists will urge the all party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution to recommend a strengthening of the Constitution's commitment to freedom of expression.
The NNI in its submission says that Article 40.6.1, of the Constitution is not strong enough.
It backs the findings of the Constitutional Review Group in saying the 1937 Constitution "fails adequately to support the right of Irish citizens to access to a press through which information and ideas on matters of public interest are received and imparted".
The NNI submission argues for Article 10 of the European Convention to be incorporated fully into the Irish Constitution and warns against adopting a variant of that article for fear that any deviance from the wording could be the subject of litigation.
The NUJ also calls for Article 10 to be incorporated into the Constitution and will be writing to the Oireachtas Committee to that effect.
Article to states, in part: "Everyone has the right to free expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
However, it allows restrictions in the interests of national security, territorial integrity and public safety. It allows national regulations and the protection of reputations and the rights of others. It recognises restrictions, prescribed by law, that are necessary in democratic society.
Media lawyers hold that this article is more in tune with today's media environment than the wording of the 1930s.
If Article to was to be incorporated into the Constitution, it would bring with it a considerable amount of jurisprudence concerning freedom of information, as well as defining the watchdog role of the press, the duties of the press to impart information and the rights of citizens to receive it.
Article 10 is expected to be the basis on which the case of Mr Barry O'Kelly, a Dublin journalist, will be fought. Mr O'Kelly is at the centre of a case of contempt of court for refusing to name his sources. The European Court of Human Rights ruled this year that journalists have the right to defend the confidentiality of sources under Article 10 in a case brought by an English journalist, Mr Bill Goodwin, and mainly funded by the NUJ.
If the courts refuse to acknowledge the right of journalists to keep sources of information confidential, then the NUJ has indicated it would be willing to take Mr O'Kelly's case to the European Court.