Concern over media coverage of politics

SEANAD REPORT:NIALL Ó BROLCHÁIN (Greens) has expressed concern over the media's coverage of politics. He was supporting a call by Rónán Mullen (Ind) for a debate on the way the media operated in the light of the manner in which the illness of the Minister for Finance had been disclosed.

There was a need for a culture where people held the media to account, said Mr Mullen. The way to do that was by identifying that the libel laws alone were not sufficient to protect people, whether in public or in private life, against the depredations of the media.

While the work of the Press Council was to be commended, its remit did not cover broadcasting. There was a perception that the broadcasting regulatory authorities lacked teeth.

He took this view while having great sympathy for individual journalists who were caught up in a web of bad practice because of the pressure they faced from their editors or from their media bosses.

Mr Ó Brolcháin said “the difficulty with the media is that we are talking about spin, we are talking about segmenting the things that we actually say. It’s important to be able to get things out directly to the public rather than having them edited all the time.”

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Newly elected Fianna Fáil member Paschal Mooney said he very grateful for the support he had received, not only from the Government parties but across the political divide. Mr Mooney said that since losing his seat he had learned to empathise with people who had lost their jobs.

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Minister for the Environment John Gormley said it was his ambition that the Government would press ahead with Seanad reforms.

He was responding to a motion in the names of Independent members David Norris, Joe O’Toole, Ivana Bacik, Rónán Mullen and Shane Ross, that, in the light of public criticism and of the numerous reports on the subject, the Seanad asked the Government to embark on the process of comprehensive reform.

David Norris complained that there was virtually no media coverage of the doings of the Seanad. "Even the coverage of The Irish Timesis often pitiful. This is not due to lack of effort on the part of the correspondent, Jimmy Walsh, who is universally respected."