Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has described a letter from international and domestic media freedom organisations to the leader of Sinn Fein as "quite a serious matter and deserves attention".
He told the Dáil that he had seen a copy of the letter and that it was signed by "the Coalition for Women in Journalism, Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation - that's the Maltese journalist who was murdered - the European Federation of Journalists, the International Press Institution, Reporters Without Borders, among others".
Mr Varadkar said that in his almost two decades in the Dáil, he could not "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".
He was responding to his Fine Gael colleague Ciaran Cannon who had noted that the letter was sent "expressing the alarm about a series of legal actions taken by Sinn Féin members against journalists".
Mr Cannon quoted the letter as saying that "the number of legal actions that have been filed by Sinn Féin points to a coordinated campaign against the media in Ireland'" and "'bears all the hallmarks of SLAPPS (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), a form of legal harassment used by powerful people to intimidate and silence public watchdogs including our journalists'".
"The letter finishes," he continued, "by urging Sinn Féin to be mindful of the chilling effect that these legal actions can have on our media and our democracy".
This takes place "in the context of six sitting Sinn Féin TDs that are currently suing, or have sued, our national media," he added.
The Taoiseach said that he had "just confirmed with the Minister of Justice that we expect that the new defamation legislation published in the New Year, and then hopefully enacted later in the year".
