The decision by The Irish Times to publish details of a Mahon tribunal investigation into payments made to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern when he was minister for finance in the early 1990s was sharply criticised at the weekend by Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey.
In a speech to a media conference in Dublin, the Fianna Fáil minister claimed the reason The Irish Times published "private, confidential testimony" from the Taoiseach was "probably because of the fear of being scooped by another newspaper".
Rejecting the view that such disclosure was in the public interest, he said this implied that the newspaper believed the Mahon tribunal could not be trusted to serve the public interest.
If the allegations were not going to be dealt with, "why not show respect to the tribunal and to the individual concerned and wait until then to publish?" But that course of action was not taken, due to "the pressure of commercialism".
Mr Dempsey was the opening speaker at the 11th Cleraun Media Conference, organised by Opus Dei at its Cleraun study centre and student residence in Mount Merrion, close to the University College Dublin campus at Belfield. The conference was co-sponsored by The Irish Times, RTÉ, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and the Electricity Supply Board.
He stressed he was not against whistleblowers, who had been "enormously important in recent Irish history". He praised the anonymous individual who exposed "the mutilation visited upon patients" by surgeon Michael Neary, so that The Irish Times could publish the story.
"Whoever the whistleblower was, in that case, served the public good. No doubt about that," he said. But he added: "The details compare starkly with the most recent example of a so-called 'whistleblower', who anonymously leaked private and confidential information supplied voluntarily to a tribunal to disprove scurrilous unfounded allegations of wrongdoing on his [,ie the Taoiseach's] part.
"The justification that this was 'in the public interest' implies that the newspaper concerned believes that the tribunal could not be trusted to serve the 'public interest'. If the tribunal eventually decided, as the newspaper apparently believes it would, that the allegations would not be dealt with by the tribunal, why not show respect to the tribunal and to the individual concerned and wait until then to publish? Probably because of the fear of being scooped by another newspaper. The pressure of commercialism I referred to earlier," the Minister said.
There had been "radical changes" in the Irish media over the past 20 years. "Irish newspapers are now not only competing with Irish editions of British newspapers. They are also competing against the new phenomenon of 'freesheets', handed out at traffic lights, street corners and commuter stations." But the internet, above all, was posing a major challenge to print media.
This "media revolution" had brought added pressures and concerns: "It has exerted a huge pressure on journalists to ruthlessly pursue the next sensational, headlining story. It has rapidly increased the rate at which information must be published - often forcing journalists into taking short cuts."
Despite growing market pressures, the concept of protecting sources was "one of the mantras that convinces media it is essentially idealistic and non-commercial". Acknowledging that this was "a traditional and important value", the Minister continued: "But when I see it being stretched into being the defining virtue of journalism, I'm reminded of the young prostitute played by Julia Roberts in the film Pretty Woman. The sex-worker earned her living by selling her body. She did what the clients wanted. Except for one thing. She would never kiss them. Somehow, that little tiny restriction saved her self-respect. Somehow, in that tiny caveat lay her view of herself as not really a sex worker."
The determination of the media to protect their sources gave an incentive to people to leak stories but that determination could "undoubtedly and not infrequently protect sources who are making things up".
Questioning the use of "anonymous negative sources", the Minister continued: "The New York Times has recently, as I understand it, banned mentions of 'anonymous pejorative sources'. In other words, that paper will no longer carry stories damaging to one individual, the only source for which is another individual protected by anonymity. That's an interesting model of approach. I hope it spreads."
Irish journalism was "probably unique in the world", in that so many of its major outlets were set up for non-commercial reasons. "They didn't start out with the mission of delivering a provable number of readers or viewers or listeners to advertisers. That's where they are now. It isn't where they started."
He pointed out, for example, that the (now-defunct) Irish Press "was set up, not, initially, as a commercial entity, but as a propaganda machine". Meanwhile, RTÉ was set up to "inform, educate and entertain" and not to make money. The Minister commented: "Oh, the purity of those times . . ."