Parnell Summer School:Standards in some sections of the Irish media were criticised at the Parnell Summer School in Avondale, Co Wicklow, yesterday.
Dr John Horgan, professor of journalism at Dublin City University, said the coverage by some newspapers of Liam Lawlor's death highlighted the increasing pressure "to change from the traditional journalistic definition of printing something that must be true to printing or publishing something that might be true".
Dr Horgan said there was a growing scepticism among journalists about politicians. Research soon to be published would highlight a growing "plague on all your houses mindset" from journalists towards politics, he said. Dr Horgan summed up this mindset as "politics is a waste of time at best and a breeding ground for corruption and self-seeking at worst".
He criticised the increasing trend towards second-hand and third-hand reporting by some journalists "who never get up off their behinds", instead looking at TV monitors to inform their reports.
He warned against the introduction of the proposed Privacy Bill which would allow people to seek injunctions in private preventing the media from reporting on an issue.
When the relationship between Government and the media slid towards "deep hostility, mutual suspicion and occasional bouts of viciousness", the ultimate losers would be the "plain people of Ireland".
Retired political broadcaster and academic Prof Brian Farrell criticised attempts by the State to withhold information on issues such as public policy from the people directly affected but said that was beginning to change. "We are now beginning to see the encouragement of whistleblowers. Let's have more of them because I think there's a lot more under the carpet to be revealed."
The Irish Times political correspondent Stephen Collins said that "at times of political controversy, the viewership of news programmes goes up and certainly the readership of broadsheet newspapers goes up."
He said the media should be conscious of the growing public concern about privacy.
There was public concern about the importation of British media standards, and some judges had a "ferociously hostile attitude" towards the media in libel actions. The proposed Press Council would give people some redress, and some libel actions could be avoided, he added.