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It goes without saying that to be selected as the president of the Societyof Editors is a great honour not only for me as editor of the BelfastTelegraph, but also – I hope – for all who work there, particularly in theeditorial department where I have spent so much of my career.

This has been a great conference with some stimulating and enlighteneddebates and speeches. When the old Guild of Editors and the Association ofBritish Editors merged less than two years ago they could hardly have doneso with more appropriate timing. Seldom in modern times has the role of themedia, newspapers and our electronic brothers and sisters been under such aspotlight. Seldom, if ever, has there been such a welter of governmentlegislation which impinged or threatened to impinge on the duties ofjournalists and the responsibilities of editors.

Sometimes as I have sat at meetings of the parliamentary and legalcommittee and listened to the interpretations of the complex world of dataprotection and human rights legislation, or local government reform or therelationship between the police and news desks, one question in particularhas crossed my mind. What price the much-vaunted freedom of the Press intoday’s United Kingdom?

Despite what governments say, is the Fourth Estate really as free as it wasyesterday or are we in danger of being stealthily stitched up albeit in thenicest possible way, without many reporters, writers or broadcasters, nevermind us editors, knowing or understanding what has hit them or is about tobefall them? So much has happened in the past year that there is barely timeto draw breath at the society’s meetings and we should be enormouslyindebted to those who have shouldered this burden and guided us through alegislative minefield.

And so ladies and gentlemen, what of the year ahead? There’s an old poemwritten about Belfast which goes as follows:The last shall be first and first shall be last

May the Lord in his mercy be kind to Belfast.

You have been very, very kind to Belfast and to me today and I am delightedif not a little nervous in taking on this role as the first editor to do sofrom across the Irish Sea.

Much water has flowed under many bridges in the 34 years since I joined the Belfast Telegraph as a trainee reporter in August 1966 and of course, much blood has been spilt, many lives have been sacrificed and the Belfast Telegraph and all the other media in NorthernIreland have often found themselves at the eye of a political hurricane.

Our journalists and those who work for all the other papers, for the BBC andcommercial television and radio and all the daily and weekly media in Ulsterhave faced experiences and challenges, far beyond what might be expected inany normal society.

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