Following a two-day mission to Dublin on 22-23 October 2024, the partners of the Council of Europe’s Platform on Safety of Journalists today called on Irish authorities to continue to engage with civil society in order to prioritise the reform of defamation legislation, the adoption of comprehensive anti-SLAPP provisions, the safety of journalists throughout the island of Ireland, and a sustainable model for trusted public service media.
The Partner organisations met with journalists, representatives of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and government officials from the Department of Justice and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. The delegation noted with concern the ongoing delays in reforming Ireland’s defamation laws and highlighted the urgency of reform that incorporates strong anti-SLAPP provisions. The organisations also note the transposition timeline for the EU Anti-SLAPP Directive requires a timely engagement by the authorities on this vital issue.
While it is unlikely the Defamation (Reform) Bill will be passed prior to the expected General Election, it is vital the new administration gives priority to this Bill.
Without the necessary reforms, Ireland will be without adequate protections against abusive legal threats at a time when powerful actors, including politicians, are using defamation and the threat of defamation law to silence or intimidate journalists.
We further express our grave concern regarding the treatment of journalists and their sources in Northern Ireland, exemplified by but not limited to the cases of Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney who have been surveilled by police forces based in England and Northern Ireland to identify their sources. Evidence produced during hearings of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal has established that McCaffrey’s communications have been monitored on five separate occasions between 2008 and 2018. There have been further reports of applications to access the information of more than 320 journalists and 500 lawyers. Due to the cross-border nature of this alleged surveillance and journalism, we call on the Irish authorities to engage with its UK counterparts to ensure that such flagrant abuses of press freedom are prevented in the future.
The delegation recognises and welcomes the efforts of the Irish authorities to maintain a structural dialogue with journalists themselves, through the presence of NUJ and journalist representatives on the Media Engagement Group. Such engagement is vital at times of heightened tensions, such as demonstrations, elections and protests and is at the heart of the Council of Europe Journalism Matters campaign. We urge the next administration to maintain this work and to ensure it is resourced sufficiently in order to remain a vital and valued resource and point of support for all journalists. This could ensure Ireland can become an exemplar for other Council of Europe member states in respect of promoting the safety of journalists.
The Platform is concerned by reports of the Garda Síochána demanding access to journalists’ material particularly related to covering demonstrations. We call on the Gardaí to cease making these demands which also increase the security risks faced by journalists who may be targeted by demonstrators who believe their recordings will be used by the Gardaí. Moreover we call on the Gardaí to do more to engage with journalists on protecting them from growing threats online or offline.
The Platform partners are also concerned by the recently announced 3-year funding model for the Irish public broadcaster RTÉ, which risks resulting in staff cuts and the outsourcing of productions. We call on the authorities to ambitiously implement the European Media Freedom Act’s Article 5, which obliges EU Member States to ensure adequate, sustainable and predictable funding for public service media.
Finally, the delegation calls on the Irish government to take fresh action in respect of the 2001 murder of journalist Martin O’Hagan. A new government in the UK and an imminent election in Ireland provides the opportunity for a fresh start in this case to ensure impunity does not endure. We call on the Irish government to engage with the UK authorities to take effective actions in order to investigate this egregious case anew.
The delegation was composed of representatives from the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ), Index on Censorship, the International Press Institute (IPI), Justice For Journalists Foundation (JFJ), PEN International, International News Safety Institute (INSI) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Trinity College, Knights of the Campanile initiation ceremony. Credit: Eleanor O’Mahony, The University Times
The threat to the future of one of the two student newspapers at Dublin’s Trinity College has been averted following a referendum among students who voted against a proposition to defund the University Times.
The controversy, which was viewed as having implications for press freedom and freedom of speech at the university by bodies such as the National Union of Journalists, followed reporting of alleged hazing at an all-male and secretive sporting club, the Knights of the Campanile.
The story, reported last week by Index On Censorship, centred on the methods used to investigate the story. Those favouring punishing the newspaper claimed that listening in and using a recording device was an infringement of their privacy rights and suggested journalists would be randomly bugging student rooms.
Those favouring the newspaper and its staff said the story was in the public interest and that justified the journalists’ actions. Among those who supported the University Times included a former attorney general and minister for Justice, Michael McDowell. Support also came from the International Federation of Journalists and the NUJ’s Ethics Council, as well as a number of prominent Irish journalists.
The other university newspaper, Trinity News, accused the University Times of acting contrary to journalistic ethics and called for the resignation of the editor.
The vote was 788 voting to defund the newspaper and a massive 2271 against, which is 74 per cent in favour of the University Times.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1555320232097-24dbceca-960a-5″ taxonomies=”8843″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Trinity College, Knights of the Campanile initiation ceremony. Credit: Eleanor O’Mahony, The University Times
UPDATE: Some 74 per cent of students voted against slashing the funding of The University Times at Trinity College, Dublin.
A student newspaper at Ireland’s oldest university, Trinity College, Dublin, could face closure after a forthcoming student referendum due to a row over methods used to investigate a story about initiation into an elitist all-male college society.
The initiation ceremony, or “hazing”, was seemingly meted out to those invited to become members of the Knights of the Campanile, an invitation-only sporting society, based on similar bodies at Oxford and Cambridge universities.
The story was published in The University Times, a student union-funded, though independent newspaper, last month. The story, Knights of the Campanile Hazes Members on Campus, went on to say that reporters from the newspaper had witnessed an initiation ceremony for the elite invitation-only society. It claimed members were taken to the rooms of the society president, while the reporters listened outside and left a recording device outside the door. The reporters heard the potential members being jeered, taunted and told to “bend over”, “get in the shower” to “whisper insults in each others’ ears” and that “HIV is going on your toast tomorrow”.
Groaning, gagging and retching sounds were heard coming from the room. Members were told “it’s gonna be a long night, boys” before being driven away in rental cars.
There was an almost instant condemnation of the methods used rather than the society and the hazing allegation, including from the rival newspaper, Trinity News, which called for the resignation of the editor and said the methods were contrary to journalistic ethics. A petition calling for the newspaper to be defunded, which would almost certainly close it, was also initiated.
However, the story grew. The NUJ’s Ethics Council came out in support The University Times, whose staff are student members of the union, and the International Federation of Journalists described the attempted closure as an attack on press freedom. The university’s School of Law is split, with three professors highlighting the inviolability of the dwelling in the Constitution of Ireland, which the journalists are meant to have breached. Their colleague, professor Eoin O’Dell, defended the newspaper, its reporters and their methods, based on a public interest defence that trumped privacy and was justified by the public interest and the importance of the story. Michael McDowell, Ireland’s former Attorney General and former Minister for Justice, argued at a public meeting at Trinity that the public interest and the guarantees of a free press in the constitution were enough to protect the newspaper and its ethical behaviour.
Another solution, which was not taken up, was that instead of threatening a newspaper with closure, the issue should be taken to the Irish Press Council for adjudication, as both student newspapers are members.
The same newspaper had previously published a story concerning hazing by the college boat club.
The referendum will take place on 10 and 11 April.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1555078636454-225c0bbf-fd09-5″ taxonomies=”8843″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Monument to Veronica Guerin in Dublin Castle gardens. Credit: William Murphy / Flickr
This weekend marks 20 years since the murder of Irish award-winning crime and investigative journalist Veronica Guerin. On 26 June 1996, two masked men on a motorbike pulled up alongside her car at traffic lights on the outskirts of Dublin, opened fire and killed her instantly. Three men were subsequently convicted for their involvement in the murder.
Guerin, who had been working as a freelance journalist for Ireland’s Sunday Independent, made a name for herself investigating and exposing the crimes of senior members of Dublin’s criminal underworld. But such a reputation can be a dangerous thing for an investigative reporter to have. Guerin was subject to a number of attacks and threats, including against the life of her young son Cathal. In 1995 she was shot in her home but survived. Refusing to yield, she continued her work.
“Veronica was a late entrant to journalism; she trained and worked initially in accountancy so she had an instinct for business and understood money,” says Séamus Dooley, Irish Secretary, National Union of Journalists. “That was very useful in studying records and following the money.”
Her death prompted a wave of public anger culminating in the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau, followed by more than 150 arrests and a major hunt for organised criminal gangs. “The idea of a designated bureau with sweeping powers to target those with suspicious wealth was a direct response to her murder and caused havoc among those heading criminal gangs,” says Dooley.
Guerin’s death was described by then-Taoiseach John Bruton as a “an attack on democracy”. Unfortunately, this sentiment was echoed earlier this year when current Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “Journalists and media organisations will not be intimidated by such threats, which have no place in a democratic society.”
The threats he was referring to were made in February 2016 by criminal gangs in Dublin against a number of crime journalists in the city who were reporting on a gangland feud that saw two audacious murders in the space of four days. Police informed Independent News and Media, which owns the Irish Independent newspaper, that the safety of two reporters — a man and a woman — was at risk.
Jimmy Guerin, the brother of Veronica, said at the time: “Successive governments have let down the memory of Veronica … by failing to provide the resources required to beat the gangs.”
So are we back to the way things were two decades ago?
“The situation has been simmering beneath the surface for a while, but the turf wars between the Kinahan and the Hutch families, along with the nature of the violence, is new,” says Dooley. “Gerry Hutch is someone Veronica would have covered in her time, so there is a direct connection with what came before.”
“However, there was this perception that Dublin was a city on lockdown following the killings and journalists are operating under fear,” adds Dooley. “This isn’t bandit country, and there aren’t large numbers of journalists fearful for their lives.”
This shouldn’t mean complacency, adds Dooley, who states that the NUJ has supported a number of journalists at risk in Ireland in recent years.
“One of the problems is that Dublin is a small city, so, naturally, the number of people covering crime is very small,” says Dooley. “Veronica was very well-known to the people she was writing about and so are today’s reporters.”
With crime reporting being such a small part of the market, there is great pressure to deliver stories quicker, which brings problems in itself.
“Today’s journalists are expected to take more risks, and freelancers — as Veronica was — take even greater risks than those in staff jobs,” says Dooley. “While I understand that there is also the commercial element of selling newspapers in order to survive, sensationalising crime coverage in such a high profile way and being overly provocative in the process of selling comes at a price.”
His murder remains an isolated case, but recent years have seen a spate of attacks and threats against journalists in the country. In 2014, Irish News reporter Allison Morris was called a “Fenian bastard” and a “Fenian cunt” as she left court by a gang who threatened to cut her throat.
These are not isolated incidents in either the north or south of Ireland.
If we are to learn anything from the death of Veronica Guerin all these years later, says Dooley, it is that “there needs to be greater recognition of the rights of journalists.”
