Sir, - Writers of letters to the editor, unite. You have nothing to lose but your ideas. In this Internet era, the letter columns of newspapers are being raided for inspiration and ideas.
Some journalists and broadcasting researchers swoop like magpies on letters to the editor. The contents are recycled and used in articles and radio programmes.
The magpies occasionally contact the original authors and invite them to provide further views, for example as paid contributors to radio features. In general, however, the original material is lifted without acknowledgement.
The net effect could be to inhibit concerned citizens from expressing their views freely in the media.
Your esteemed columnist, Kevin Myers, does not have to borrow other writers' ideas. It is interesting, however, that the recent collection of his writings is prefaced by selected quotations from letters to the editor without naming the letter-writers. - Yours, etc.,
Tony Quinn, Dalkey, Co Dublin.