09 Apr 19 | Academic Freedom, Campaigns, Media Freedom, media freedom featured, News and features
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Trinity College, Knights of the Campanile initiation ceremony. Credit: Eleanor O’Mahony, The University Times
UPDATE: Some 74 per cent of students voted against slashing the funding of The University Times at Trinity College, Dublin.
A student newspaper at Ireland’s oldest university, Trinity College, Dublin, could face closure after a forthcoming student referendum due to a row over methods used to investigate a story about initiation into an elitist all-male college society.
The initiation ceremony, or “hazing”, was seemingly meted out to those invited to become members of the Knights of the Campanile, an invitation-only sporting society, based on similar bodies at Oxford and Cambridge universities.
The story was published in The University Times, a student union-funded, though independent newspaper, last month. The story, Knights of the Campanile Hazes Members on Campus, went on to say that reporters from the newspaper had witnessed an initiation ceremony for the elite invitation-only society. It claimed members were taken to the rooms of the society president, while the reporters listened outside and left a recording device outside the door. The reporters heard the potential members being jeered, taunted and told to “bend over”, “get in the shower” to “whisper insults in each others’ ears” and that “HIV is going on your toast tomorrow”.
Groaning, gagging and retching sounds were heard coming from the room. Members were told “it’s gonna be a long night, boys” before being driven away in rental cars.
There was an almost instant condemnation of the methods used rather than the society and the hazing allegation, including from the rival newspaper, Trinity News, which called for the resignation of the editor and said the methods were contrary to journalistic ethics. A petition calling for the newspaper to be defunded, which would almost certainly close it, was also initiated.
However, the story grew. The NUJ’s Ethics Council came out in support The University Times, whose staff are student members of the union, and the International Federation of Journalists described the attempted closure as an attack on press freedom. The university’s School of Law is split, with three professors highlighting the inviolability of the dwelling in the Constitution of Ireland, which the journalists are meant to have breached. Their colleague, professor Eoin O’Dell, defended the newspaper, its reporters and their methods, based on a public interest defence that trumped privacy and was justified by the public interest and the importance of the story. Michael McDowell, Ireland’s former Attorney General and former Minister for Justice, argued at a public meeting at Trinity that the public interest and the guarantees of a free press in the constitution were enough to protect the newspaper and its ethical behaviour.
Another solution, which was not taken up, was that instead of threatening a newspaper with closure, the issue should be taken to the Irish Press Council for adjudication, as both student newspapers are members.
The same newspaper had previously published a story concerning hazing by the college boat club.
The referendum will take place on 10 and 11 April.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1555078636454-225c0bbf-fd09-5″ taxonomies=”8843″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
08 Nov 18 | Index in the Press, News and features, religion & culture, Religion and Culture
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In October 2018 Ireland voted — with a significant majority — to amend article 40.6.1 of its constitution to remove the criminalisation of the “publication or utterance” of anything deemed blasphemous. All major political parties backed the reform and even the Catholic Church agreed the law was “largely obsolete”. Although no one had ever been convicted of blasphemy in Ireland, the potential €25,000 fine caused many to self-censor. The most worrying aspect of Ireland’s blasphemy legislation was that it was cited by the Organisation of Islamic States at the UN — led by Pakistan — as best practice. Under Pakistani law, blasphemy is punishable by death.
Index on Censorship welcomed the amendment article 40.6.1. Index’s assistant online editor, Ryan McChrystal, spoke to Voice of Islam about the vote.
[Update: This article has been amended to clarify details of the amendment to article 40.6.1]
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09 Oct 18 | Counter Terrorism, News and features
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Belfast-based Irish News security correspondent Allison Morris told Index on Censorship her concerns about the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill in its current form.
The bill would have significant implications for journalism and media freedom. Lack of clarity and definition in many of its clauses would add to the difficulties that the bill would create for journalists. Journalists in Northern Ireland would face particularly acute problems.
“The bill proposes making it an offence to express and opinion or belief that is in support of a proscribed organisation,” Morris said. There are currently 14 proscribed organisations in Northern Ireland.
Morris has reported on dozens of statements from paramilitary groups for acts they have committed — from bombings and shootings to murder. “While I’m always aware that these claims can be used for propaganda purposes the public interest in knowing who was responsible for such acts of terror I believe outweighs that.”
She says knowing who is responsible is crucial to getting authorities to carry out an “adequate” investigation. The Counter-Terrorism bill’s opaque terminology means that “without clarity any journalist carrying a statement from a proscribed group could technically be breaking the law,” Morris said.
Morris says this has possible implications for reporting and documenting the history of Northern Ireland’s conflict, and wonders would it mean never to speak to or interview an ex-prisoner or former participant in the conflict.
“The bill also proposes making it illegal to publish an image which would arouse reasonable suspicion that the offender was a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation – in local terms this means covering parades, funerals or statements of intent could lead to the arrest of journalists and photographers,” she said.
Morris said that at a time when investigative journalism is under attack globally “such Draconian laws could impact the ability of security journalists to properly – and without fear of arrest – pursue stories connected to terror groups.”
“That seems a very dangerous tactic and one that should be resisted by anyone in favour of a free and independent press.”
Index is calling on the House of Lords to stop the bill being enacted in its current form.[/vc_column_text][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”8″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1539017012819-9c1318f9-7fa2-6″ taxonomies=”27743, 26927″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
16 Oct 17 | Ireland, Mapping Media Freedom, Media Freedom, media freedom featured, News and features
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Denis O’Brien, the owner of Communicorp
Staff from the Irish Times will no longer appear on Ireland’s only two national commercial radio stations. The ban was laid out in a memo to Newstalk and Today FM staff on 5 October.
“The blacklisting of journalists in any context is deeply problematic but is more so in a media market that is as concentrated as Ireland’s. We call on the management of Communicorp to reverse this decision and support a plurality of voices,” Hannah Machlin, project manager for Mapping Media Freedom, said.
The memo of Communicorp’s radio outlets followed a 12 September 2017 commentary by Irish Times journalist Fintan O’Toole that criticised Newstalk presenter George Hook’s remarks about rape made on air on 9 September. O’Toole also took the station to task for its male-dominated lineup of presenters during prime hours, saying he would not appear on the Newstalk again as it had become “the most flagrantly sexist public organisation in Ireland”.
After the article and a social media campaign, Hook was suspended from Newstalk on 15 September.
Communicorp’s chief executive Adrian Serle said the decision to ban Irish Times journalists from Newstalk and Today FM programmes was made in response to O’Toole’s “vile comments”.
In response to the ban, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland said it would “write to [the] Communicorp Group to clarify a number of matters in respect of editorial independence” in a statement to the Irish Times, along with the National Union of Journalists calling on Communicorp to reconsider its position.
O’Toole also tweeted he was “delighted” that Denis O’Brien, the owner of Communicorp, is “upholding free speech by banning all Irish Times journalists from all stations”.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1508149136704-f9f62e37-b6a5-5″ taxonomies=”76″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
