Minister rules out privacy law

Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte has ruled out introducing a privacy law.

He said he agreed with Minister for Justice Alan Shatter that some media commentary did not appear to be able to distinguish between privacy and prurience, but he did not believe the answer was a legislative measure.

“That would be an unwarranted interference with the media,” he said.

Independent TD Shane Ross, welcoming the Minister’s reply, said he did not understand Mr Shatter’s involvement in the issue, given that it was not within his department’s remit.

He took it, he said, that Mr Shatter’s proposals for a privacy law were now a dead duck.

Mr Rabbitte said that the Press Council of Ireland had worked well. “One can say it has not yet had a severe enough test, but in so far as I can observe, it has done a fine job.”

He added that when Lord Justice Leveson, who had inquired into media ethics in Britain, had come to Dublin to learn more about the peculiar construct existing in Ireland, he was understood to have been impressed.

“The fact that he has conferred approval on its reputation to date should not be ignored,” said Mr Rabbitte. “If it is working and not broken, why try to fix it ?”

Rabbitte’s remit

Earlier, Mr Rabbitte said that his current remit related to the broadcasting sector, but legislation was in train to give him responsibility for all media.

Control of mergers and acquisitions was a vital policy area given the central role of the media in democracy and the potentially harmful effects of an over-concentration of media ownership, he said.

Mr Rabbitte added that the Government was committed to implementing new robust measures that allowed for a transparent and objective assessment of the public good in media merger cases, which would be done as quickly as possible.

The revised rules, he said, would bring the system in operation in Ireland up to date and give full effect to the recommendations of the advisory group on media mergers.