IT is one thing to be controversial, but another to sink into the most extreme forms of blasphemy. Peter Barron, in his From the Editor’s Chair column (Echo, Feb 22), wrote “newspapers should be controversial. They should present contrasting voices”.

I agree, but as Mr Barron suggests, there is a fine line.

Alongside his column was yet another anti-Christian Hear All Sides letter from Robert Meggs. I feel sorry for anyone who is so consumed with obsessive hatred and bitterness and I doubt if the letter would have been printed if it defamed the Islamic or Jewish faiths in such terms.

I believe that The Northern Echo has overstepped the line by printing such a blasphemous letter. Is the paper so wealthy that it can risk losing revenue from advertising as happened to the Daily Mail after it printed, I quote, “a hate-filled, ignorant column by Jan Moir”?

The Echo has done some wonderful, ground-breaking campaigning in the past, but it may not have as much support if it loses honest Christian readers by printing such offensive material. Please keep the standards up. Don’t plumb the depths.

Mrs Helen L Brown, Leyburn, North Yorkshire.