Media companies' concerns about restrictions placed on reporting by intelligence and national security laws have been ignored by successive governments, news executives have told a press freedom inquiry.

And now the state of secrecy, including police raids on the ABC's newsroom and the home of a News Corp reporter in June, have reached such a level that sources are getting spooked.

News Corp executive Campbell Reid and ABC representatives told a Senate committee in Canberra on Friday they had previously made lengthy submissions on draft security legislation, with detailed alternative wording for clauses.

Nine News' political editor, Chris Uhlmann, told the press freedom inquiry sources were too scared to speak to reporters. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"It wasn't that we weren't speaking, it was that we weren't being listened to," Mr Reid said.