Effectively single-handedly, South Belfast MLA Matthew O'Toole raised the flag for under-pressure community media outlets this year, ensuring the steamroller advance of the fake news behemoths Facebook and Google was halted.

But now the SDLP man has recruited fresh troops to join the battle against the global internet giants whose free-wheeling approach to truth led this year to the establishment of the campaign Stop Hate for Profit which urged companies to withdraw advertising from Facebook.

Ironically, community newspapers across the North — from the Fermanagh Herald to the County Down Spectator and from this humble organ to the Banbridge Chronicle — were omitted from the Executive business Covid rescue packages, even as the Scottish Government removed rates from newspapers and launched a £2m advertising relief fund. 

Now Matthew O'Toole has launched an All Party Group on Press Freedom and Media Sustainability at Stormont which will look beyond the current coronavirus crisis to efforts to gag the media and to measures which can underpin local journalism.

The APG, made up of cross-party MLAs, will work closely with both the National Union of Journalists and representatives of local media.

The group will tackle concerns about recent increases in threats and harassment targeted at journalists in the North, as well as the severe economic impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the long term viability of local media outlets.

Earlier this year, the SDLP launched an action plan to protect and enhance the long-term future of local media, which included a rates holiday for local titles, a commitment from the Executive to expand its ad buying across Northern Ireland media, facilitating more daily newspaper delivery for vulnerable groups – and helping local media plan for the future by expanding their online presence and recruiting new journalists.

The APG met for the first time before Christmas.

Said Matthew O'Toole: “Today, Northern Ireland is the most dangerous place in the UK or Ireland to be a journalist. Online abuse has been entirely normalised and threats of physical violence are occurring nearly every week – particularly against female journalists.

“The patchy police response to physical intimidation against journalists has emboldened the people and the groups making these threats. Threats of violence should never be accepted ‘as part of the job’. An action plan is needed to protect a free press – one of the most fundamental elements of a free society."

The SDLP man argues that local newspapers are a vital lifeline for vibrant communities. 

“The potential disappearance of local newspapers threatens not just the people who own papers, but the resilience of the local communities they serve," he said. 

“Local newspapers bind communities together, underpin economies and mitigate against isolation. They are a critical meeting point for people and places."

While Sinn Féin brought a paper to the Executive in the summer calling for a rates holiday for newspapers, the DUP refused to allow the item to proceed to the agenda, meaning local media continue to pay rates while the vast majority of small businesses do not.