IMAGINE life without your Northern Echo.

If it wasn’t for our newspapers and the journalists who fill them, waste and inefficiency in public bodies, corruption and other crime might not be exposed.

Whistleblowers would have nowhere to go to reveal wrong-doing in local organisations.

There would be no-one to campaign on your behalf, to rally the community to raise vitally-needed funds for local charities and appeals.

That terrifying prospect is now a great deal closer than you might think.

Sadly, there are those who would be only too happy to see misbehaviour and the misuse of public funds go unreported by restricting the press.

There are already tough libel laws that the press must comply with to expose wrong-doing but now a new law threatens the very existence of newspapers.

An obscure piece of legislation could soon be used to impose crippling legal costs on newspapers in the wake of libel or privacy trials – even when what they print is the truth.

Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act could force newspapers to pay the costs incurred by both sides in a libel case even if the newspaper wins and is able to demonstrate in court that what it reported was accurate and publication was in the public interest.

In other words, the freedom of the press and the public’s right to know – two of the cornerstones of modern democracy – are both under threat.

If you believe in these values, in your right to know, then please respond to the Government’s consultation on implementing Section 40 by writing to your MP, calling on the Government to step back from a draconian measure that would take us back to the dark ages of press censorship.

This is no idle threat – your local newspaper really does need you.