One of the biggest media conferences ever staged in Ireland was opened by the President, Mrs McAleese, last night with almost 1,200 newspaper publishers, editors and executives from 88 countries expected to participate in the four-day event.
The President told the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) conference that while newspapers and journalists often acted with "extraordinary heroism", no paper or media organisation was "entitled to a presumption of integrity or honesty".
Speaking in Dublin at the welcoming reception for conference delegates she said: "Those things are earned day in and day out and they are vulnerable day in and day out as much in the fourth estate as anywhere else, as recent events in the New York Times have pointed out."
She said newspapers performed a "hugely important social function" by critiquing, challenging, informing and educating.
"You are also, however, largely responsible for the accountability of your own domain, with its pressure points between advertiser and newsroom, between accuracy and speed."
She was speaking before a Corrs concert for the delegates at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.
Today the U2 singer Bono will address delegates, as will the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern. Leading newspaper figures, among them Lord Black, owner of the Daily Telegraph, Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post, are due to speak today.
Other international newspaper groups are also represented at the conference, including News International, Associated Newspapers from the UK and the New York Times group.
All the Irish national newspaper groups, including The Irish Times and Independent News & Media, will be represented.
Mrs McAleese said there were many manifestations of the press today, from "serious scholarly journalism" which prided itself on accuracy and objectivity to the other end of the spectrum "where the story travels a long way on speculation or where cut-and-paste passes for research".
She said Ireland was the right place to have such an event. "Some 92 per cent of the adult population in Ireland read a newspaper, making us one of the most newspaper literate countries in the world, and we have been reading them since 1737."
The WAN conference comprises three events: the 56th World Newspaper Congress; the 10th World Editors' Forum; and the Info Services Expo 2003, a trade exhibition.
The main event is the congress, which will look at a myriad of newspaper issues, including the electronic newspaper, advertising and newspapers, young people and newspapers and press freedom.
The World Editors' Forum will discuss many of these issues, too, but will also take a close look at how newspapers operate internally, with a session on Tuesday focusing on creating better journalism while also operating a newspaper efficiently.
On Saturday the annual general meeting of WAN took place in Dublin.
It heard that press freedom had worsened internationally in the past six months, with an alarming number of journalists killed and repression increasing in a number of countries.
In a half-year review, the organisation said government clampdowns, ongoing and renewed conflict and premeditated attacks on journalists and their publications signalled a widespread deterioration of conditions for media, and a bleak outlook for press freedom in 2003.
It was a deadly start to the year for journalists covering conflict, with the war in Iraq killing at least 13 journalists. Five journalists have been murdered in Colombia since January in the civil conflict that has killed over 30 journalists in the last decade.
In Iraq, 13 journalists are confirmed dead and two remain missing. The eradication of Saddam Hussein's despotic rule opened a window to a brighter future for press freedom in the country, though until political stability was reached it was difficult to assess the potential for press freedom, it said.
The Paris-based WAN is the global organisation for the newspaper industry. It defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers and its membership includes 71 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 100 countries, 13 news agencies and nine regional and worldwide press groups.