Supporters of new laws to curb the freedom of the press face some very real and very practical headaches.

If you want to be fair and make sure the law applies equally to everyone, who counts as being a part of the press?

National, regional and daily newspapers would certainly count but would those that are religious, foreign or in a foreign language, political or those run by students at universities and colleges?

You would include consumer and business magazines but shouldn’t you also include government and council publications and those put together by commercial companies, health authorities, charities and even parish magazines?

If you adopt the attitude that if it carries news, it has to be included in any new regime, that puts an unfair burden on the volunteers and some professionals that pull together some of these community-based publications.

News can be accessed in many different ways

If everyone is to be subjected to the same rules, what do we do about the internet?

It is a virtual wild west where anything goes.

It is where news websites break stories alongside social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

It is where foreign sites run pictures of topless royals free from any sanction in this country.

It is where anyone can break the very superinjunctions that silence the traditional media.

And it is where servers can be based anywhere in the world and evade the long arm of the law.

It is impossible to police so it would be wrong to tie the arms of the traditional media behind their backs.

Time and again it has been proved that one rule for one and one rule for another is unfair and unjust.