Barry Ward: Welcomes Media Freedom Act, Urges Vigilance

Comhairle Comhairle, I want to welcome this Bill first of all and the implementation of the European Media Freedom Act into Irish law I think it's hugely important and there are just a few comments I wanted to make generally about the media landscape because we have a situation where often we talk and give out, sorry I don't obviously, but some people give out about media in Ireland but when we compare how functional our media are here compared to other jurisdictions around the world even in the European Union we're actually incredibly lucky to have a broadly speaking very balanced media, very responsible media and I'm struck all the time by the discrepancy between what is often referred to as the mainstream media, the traditional media, the print media and broadcast media with what we see online and the fact that much of the stuff on social media platforms for example entirely lacks the moderation and the editing that comes with the media that we feel we can trust and that is a real problem so the greater we can establish that freedom for those media the more I think that is a good thing and I do think and I know other speakers have spoken about investment in public service media I think that's also hugely important again I think we often forget even if we were to ramp up spending on RTE and I'm not necessarily proposing that that should be the case but if you look at the comparators between the budget that is provided for RTE in the size of country that we are with the budgets provided to public service broadcasters and other jurisdictions they simply they're not on the same playing pitch and you couldn't for example compare the RTE budget to the BBC budget my understanding is that the daily budget for BBC exceeds the annual budget for RTE and that's not to criticize the amount of funding for RTE but it is to mark the fact that we are a small country at the end of the day and we don't have the capacity to whole scale fund public service broadcasting in the same way I do think not withstanding that that RTE does a really good job and they on the budget that they have they deliver balanced and effective public affairs coverage or public current affairs coverage for example of course I think it could be more and it could be better I think the criticism that I would make is and I certainly hear this from colleagues who are not Irish who may be living here in Ireland that they can see the news here as being a little bit parochial and I think in the context of being part of a larger European Union for example we could see much better coverage of news from other European countries I'm sometimes surprised by the items that get coverage in a prominent place on the RT news and I question myself as to how newsworthy they actually are relative to perhaps the footage that's available or the familiarity that Irish people would have with things like America for example in Britain which I think get disproportionate coverage in media relative for example to issues in other European countries there is a program on RT radio on a Sunday morning called world report which I think is singularly excellent and it's a small collection of three or four stories from journalists in parts of the world that we don't hear very much about they give a short report on a big news story in that country and it's invariably something that we have never heard of here it's just hasn't found its way into the mainstream media in this country and this is just a small opportunity for RT to show that there is a breadth of coverage there that we don't generally get now what I'd like to see is world report being on every morning or every day on RT radio I think we as a society would benefit much more if we got news from those parts of the world but we don't hear it as much as we should and the reality is that Irish media consumers rely on much more the international press for example international magazines international journals to inform them about many significant world events we cannot rely on Irish media even the Irish Times and again the Irish Times was very good international coverage there's only so much place in the newspaper but I do think there is consequently disproportional coverage for events that occur in the English language world if I can put it that way and if I may then this this may not necessarily be a particularly relevant point to this bill insofar as it doesn't address advertising standards for example but I do think advertising is bound up part and parcel with the media landscape and I think what we see very often in Irish media and this is a criticism particularly of media other than RTE is whole-scale English advertising rebroadcast into Irish television I think there is a cultural import of that what that says to me is that the advertiser themselves has decided that there's no distinction between the Irish market and the British market for example I think that is really sad but I think what's much more important about that is the signal that it's sending is one thing but also that the loss for Irish industry so for example if you have an ad that's made in London with you know with professional people based in London whether they're PR people, advertising people, media crews, copywriters, artistic directors etc and that ad is broadcast here then all of those people who could have made that ad in Dublin or in Galway or in Cork or Limerick they lose out in the fact that that work has gone elsewhere and that is a shame and one of the real steps forward we've made in this country in the last couple of years is the 20% obligation to have state agencies advertise through Traoibheann na Gaeilge and it's wonderful to hear ads that are entirely based through Irish on television and radio from state agencies promoting different programs or whatever it might be and that's a really good thing and I know myself that it means you hear Irish in a real context every day and that that's a really really good thing but I'm afraid that it is contradicted sometimes by the fact that the next ad is for a washing powder and the person advertising it is very clearly based in London and has nothing to do with Ireland, may never have been to Ireland and I just think there is a loss for the Irish media consumer there and the fact that our media are not meeting the the obligations that they should in terms of providing a media environment that is for Irish people of Irish people which is not to say that as I say I started this by saying that there should be greater international focus but what I'm saying is it should be tailored for the people in this country and not for markets outside this country but I think what I really want to say in the context of what this bill is doing is it's hugely important for us to acknowledge how lucky we are to have a functional fair and and generally unbiased media it's not to say that there are commentators I don't disagree with of course there are and in fact if there were commentators I never disagreed it then that would be a bigger problem we are lucky to have that and very often sometimes when we look at things we see that the problems rather than the good things and certainly and I see this really in so far as what's happening for example in the United States the complete inability of certain media within the United States and to criticize some of the things that are happening the inability of European media to criticize some of the things that are happening in the Middle East and I would say particularly the blinkered approach of certain European media to what Israel is doing in Gaza for example and we don't have that problem here and in so far as we can look at our media and say actually there's something that we can be really proud of we have media organizations print and broadcast in this country who are not afraid to call out things for what they are not afraid to say things that are unpopular not afraid certainly to say things that won't curry favor with the administration of the day and they do that all the time and thank God that not only that they do but that they feel confident that they can do that and that's what media freedom is all about we're lucky to have it here which is not to say that we should be complacent about it or take it for granted we must recognize that the provision of a fair open and free media is something that must be striven for eternally we must constantly work to ensure that it's there we must constantly work to ensure that journalists feel that they can operate in a free and and vociferous way within the media environment in that regard I think it's also worth pointing out that media freedom is also about the freedom of journalists and the protection of journalists and protection of journalists from situations where they might feel themselves compromised and that includes online commentary and you I mean you I've often seen journalists being pilloried online for taking a particular position on something and in fairness they're well able to fight their own battles and I wouldn't have any concerns about that but in the context of this legislation and the European Media Freedom Act we must remember that actually there is a state obligation to ensure that there isn't that pile on on social media in relation to people who take unpopular positions the cancel culture which I absolutely abhor in it's entirely reasonable to disagree with somebody to be disgusted by what they've said without saying that they are somehow somebody who should be cancelled as the word the word that's used people must be entitled and allowed to express free opinions whether they are popular unpopular pleasant or unpleasant within the bounds of incitement to hatred and defamation and all the rest but and finally can I say this in terms of of the it's not this legislation but the defamation act because I do have a concern that we are we have in that legislation attempted to specifically address restrictions that might exist or perceived restrictions that might exist for media in terms of defamation actions and the the strategic litigation the slaps and things like that that were covered in that bill it's obviously important to suppress the ability of people to use litigation to essentially to gag organizations or journalists or people etc but I do think sometimes in the case of the defamation act that we went too far and so far as we we took steps for example to eliminate juries from from defamation actions in the High Court which were unnecessary and that step I think was very much taken to placate media and to tell them that they won't get awards that were as bad as they might have been when in fact that could have been done simply by removing the the quantum capacity for the jury so to let the judge decide on what the quantum of the award would be rather than the jury but so in that regard I think there is a balancing to be done in terms also of where the I suppose the on the one hand the importance of the freedom and the non-restriction of journalism and the media and on the other hand the the operation of the public good and the right to people to have their good names but as I say that's that's more outside the scope of this act this act or this bill is something that takes a piece of European legislation implements it into Irish law and it's very welcoming in the way that it does that it's a good thing and I hope that it's something that will form part of all the instruments we will continue to put in place to ensure that we have media freedom but more than that media in this country that is unbiased that is fair and most importantly that is vociferous in saying what it feels it needs to say where that's justifiable rather what it has to say because of political pressure or anything like that so I welcome the bill and I look forward to its passage, go raibh maith agat.