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I fear you have fallen victim to identity fraud. Surely the Tim Luckhurst who pontificates at such length about the decline in newspaper readership cannot be the same man who, I am certain, would have used the red pen freely on such prolix stuff as editor?

He would not have allowed to appear in his broadsheet pages such unsupported assertions as: "They burble with delight at the possibility that the power of big media might be shattered..."; or "Their attitude is informed by ideology and self-interest and, sometimes, intensified by jealousy."

Further, I suspect that the person writing as "Tim Luckhurst" is, in fact, simply trying to drum up business for m'learned friends. How else to account for his idea that "there are circumstances in which a reporter gaining access to private telephone messages can be morally and ethically justified"?

Tim Holmes, Senior lecturer, Cardiff School of Journalism, Cardiff University