Category: Freedom of Expression

Monitoring media pluralism in Ireland

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| Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Information, Media and Communications

Updated: 1 November 2017

MPM logo via CMPF at EUIArticle 11(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (pdf) provides that

The freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected.

As a consequence, as part of its implementation of the Digital Single Market, the European Commission defends Media Freedom and Pluralism in a variety of ways. For example, the Media Pluralism Monitor is designed to identify potential risks to media pluralism in Member States. It is based in the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom in the Robert Schumann Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute, Florence. The pilot programme was established in 2009. The monitor has been implemented twice, first in 2014 on 9 EU countries, and second in 2015 on the remaining 19 EU countries. [Update: In 2016, the CMPF implemented the monitor in all 28 EU Member States and in two candidates countries (Montenegro and Turkey).] Ireland was included in the 2015 monitor, in a chapter written by Dr Roderick Flynn of DCU.

The monitor assesses four key areas of media pluralism. The first relates to Basic Protection, which concerns

regulatory safeguards for freedom of expression and the right to information; the status of journalists, and the independence and effectiveness of the national regulatory bodies.

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Presidential freedom of expression – again

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| Election 2016, Freedom of Expression

Ethics Report coverIn 2014, I spoke at a public forum on cyberethics at the Trinity Long Room Hub. The event was part of the President of Ireland’s Ethics Initiative, and on Monday of this week, President Higgins launched On the Importance of Ethics, a report on the initiative. In his speech at its launch, President Higgins said that, during the conversations around the initiative

.. new important themes emerged, and many significant problems and obstacles were identified; for example the necessity of restoring trust in public institutions;, the need to return to the language of ‘citizen’ instead of ‘customer’ ‘taxpayer’ or ‘client’; and the consequences of returning to what I have referred to as a de-peopled version of the economy as we move out of recession. Again and again the importance of locating economic policy within a framework of social values that could create and sustain social cohesion came to the fore of discussions.

Speaking to Patsy McGarry of the Irish Times after the launch (report | video), the President expanded on this theme:

I can’t obviously comment on the platforms of the parties that will contest the election. But is it possible to have a decent society and at the same time continue to lower taxes for the purposes of securing the best short term benefit?

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Is Dublin becoming the defamation capital of the world, the libel-tourism destination of choice?

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| Defamation, ECHR, Freedom of Expression

Casks in Guinness Storehouse, Dublin; by ccharmon on FlickrThe Guinness Storehouse claims to be Ireland’s most popular tourist attraction. As the city is out of the running to become European Capital of Culture, 2020 (a title it last held in 1991), and as the Web Summit is moving to Lisbon from next year, tourist attractions like the Storehouse are probably glad to know that Dublin seems to be taking London’s mantle as Capital of Defamation, as the destination of choice for libel tourists seeking a congenial jurisdiction in which to bring a defamation action.

This is according to a new report from Thomson Reuters (see press release (via Inforrm’s blog) | The Guardian | The Independent | The Times (sub req’d) | Irish Legal News). Thomson Reuters have published research in the past about the numbers of defamation cases in London, arguing that the number of defamation cases against media groups halved in the five years from 2008/09 to in 2012/13, and that the UK’s Defamation Act, 2013 would bring further changes to the UK’s legal landscape. It is unsurprising, then, that their most recent report continues this theme. The headline on the press release for the report is that the number of defamation cases has fallen by a third in the last year; and a sub-head explains the drop by reference to the impact of the 2013 Act.…

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The university should be a safe space for the life of the mind – says Salman Rushdie

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| Blasphemy, Censorship, Freedom of Expression, Universities

Salman Rushdie, via Surian Soosay on FlickrWhile accepting a Chicago Tribune 2015 Literary Award last week, Salman Rushdie robustly rejected the wave of “safe space” censorship that is currently breaking upon college campuses:

The university is the place where young people should be challenged every day, where everything they know should be put into question, so that they can think and learn and grow up. And the idea that they should be protected from ideas that they might not like is the opposite of what a university should be. It’s ideas that should be protected, the discussion of ideas that should be given a safe place. The university should be a safe space for the life of the mind. That’s what it’s for.

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On World Press Freedom Day, Ireland ranks at number 11

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| Freedom of Expression

WPF IndexOn World Press Freedom Day, the Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontières 2015 World Press Freedom Index, Ireland is ranked at number 11 (up from 16 last year). World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993, and is celebrated worldwide on 3 May, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek (1991) which declared:

… the establishment, maintenance and fostering of an independent, pluralistic and free press is essential to the development and maintenance of democracy in a nation, and for economic development.

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QUB Charlie Hebdo event will go ahead, after all

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| Freedom of Expression, Universities

Eco (detail, scuplture) outside the New Library at QUBQueen’s University Belfast has posted the following update on its Facebook page:

Following the completion of a comprehensive risk assessment, undertaken in line with approved protocols, the University is pleased to confirm that the Charlie Hebdo Research Symposium, organised by the Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities has been approved.

There’s a shorter version on twitter. It is in line with a statement issued by Queen’s that they would carry out such an assessment. This is excellent news. Having blogged about its cancellation (here and here), I’m delighted that the Institute will get to run its symposium on entitled “Understanding Charlie: New perspectives on contemporary citizenship after Charlie Hebdo”. The Little Atoms site, which initially broke the news of the cancellation, welcomed the volte-face:

Belfast university Charlie Hebdo conference WILL go ahead

Victory for academic freedom as cancelled symposium is reinstated

… Jo Glanville, director of free speech advocacy group English PEN, welcomed Queen’s University’s decision, telling Little Atoms: “It’s very good news that the conference is now going ahead. We need as much opportunity for debate as possible at a time when the ability to exercise the right to freedom of expression remains highly vulnerable.”

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The fall of Saigon and Snepp v US

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| Freedom of Expression, Restitution, US Supreme Court

Saigon helicopterSaigon was the capital of South Vietnam, and its fall to the North Vietnamese 40 years ago this week, on 30 April 1975, effectively ended the Vietnam War. The image, left, is often taken as panic-stricken US citizens on the roof of the US Embassy trying to board the last helicopter out of Saigon. In fact, although there Many images images of the Embassy on that fateful day, the building in this famous photo is an apartment complex at 22 Gia Long Street; the people fleeing are Vietnamese; it was taken on 29 April; and the last helicopter took off at 07:53am the following day. Saigon is now Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, where the war now seems like a very distant memory, the US has been slower to learn the foreign policy lessons.

Reading about this anniversary this week brought to mind the case of Snepp v US 444 US 507 (1980). Frank Snepp was a member of the CIA in Saigon during the Vietnam War, and was one of the last Americans to leave the city as it fell to the North Vietnamese in 1975.…

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From Galileo and Milton to Charlie Hebdo – More on the cancelled QUB conference

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| Freedom of Expression

Statue of Galileo inside the Lanyon Building, QUB; detail of image by William Murphy on FlickrIn an earlier post – Queen’s University Belfast n’est pas Charlie Hebdo; instead, it says nothing – I criticised Queen’s for cancelling a symposium planned by the Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities on “new perspectives on contemporary citizenship after Charlie Hebdo“.

I wrote that post on Tuesday evening. Since then, there have been some interesting media reports and discussions about the issue. For example, BBC News, the Huffington Post and Channel 4 News have picked up the story. Inevitably, QUB’s long-running student newspaper, The Gown has run with it. And there are three interesting pieces in the Belfast Telegraph about this: University cancels Hebdo conference, which reported criticism of the cancellation; QUB in censorship row after cancelling summit on Charlie Hebdo attack, which reported that a “spokesperson for the PSNI said police were not aware of a threat, but were looking into the matter”; and Queen’s University Hebdo talk cancelled ‘over risk assessment’, which reported:

Queen’s University has said it cancelled a conference about the Charlie Hebdo massacre because no risk assessment had been carried out. … Queen’s said it was a requirement for campus events to have a full risk assessment beforehand.

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