Madam, - Ed Moloney has raised questions about journalists in Northern Ireland possibly crossing a line between reporting and participating in events (Letters, July 12th) . David Adams has suggested that what matters is that journalists are open about what they are doing (Opinion, July 17th).
Certainly some journalists and producers may see themselves as "players". For a while during the Troubles, members of the Workers' Party achieved influence within programming areas of RTÉ but did not disclose their partisan associations.
More recently, journalists came under pressure from Sinn Féin and others to be "helpful" to what became known as "the peace process".
The first duty of media professionals is to the truth, and not to party or political process. That is not to say that there may not be times when journalists can facilitate reconciliation in a conflict zone, so long as they maintain their professional perspective on any particular story and do not compromise, or appear to compromise, their duty to "tell it as it is".
Moreover, while opinion is part of journalism, letting people know what one thinks does not lessen the duty of factual accuracy. Trite objections to the concepts of fact and objectivity, dressed up in postmodern jargon or otherwise, may obscure the moral obligation to be fair.
With professional journalism under pressure from profiteering by media companies and other factors such as creeping sponsorship, it is all the more necessary to protect the public from hidden conflicts of interest. And it is not only in political zones that questions arise.
Recently, there has been considerable publicity for a talent manager who represents several broadcasting presenters in Ireland. The same person also represents large corporate clients, including alcohol, motoring and pharmaceutical companies, and makes no secret of being able to team up both groups for corporate events and promotions.
In another area, a number of people writing articles or presenting programmes that deal occasionally with media matters do not always on such occasions reveal their own personal paid involvement with relevant media organisations. They may wrongly assume that everyone knows of or recalls such connections.
It would be possible to maintain an online public register of journalists, producers and presenters in which (just as TDs are expected to register relevant financial information) media workers would be obliged to record details of their various activities.
Media organisations might also be asked to include in their codes of practice a requirement that media workers reveal in each relevant article or programme any potential conflict of interest.
- Yours, etc,
Prof COLUM KENNY, School of Communications, Dublin City University, Dublin 9.