Micheál Martin: Legislation being developed to support 'independent, mainstream, factual, objective-based media'

The newspaper industry should be supported with taxpayers’ money to challenge fake news, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said.

Mr Martin has said his party is developing legislation to provide State funding to newspapers. It could be allocated by a merit-based system, by way of standard, base-line funding, or a mixture of both.

Currently, RTÉ is the only taxpayer-funded media outlet (through the TV licence fee), but it also relies on advertising revenue.