Hey, Journalist, Leave Those Racists Alone

Anthony McIntyre ☠ Last week's RTE Investigates: Inside The Protests has left An Garda Siochana with quite a lot of explaining to do.

The egg on the force's face had barely dried from its lackadaisical policing being exposed when even more flak came its way. It has now been called out for its pursuit of journalism, which has been anything but laid back.

An Garda, beset by lethargy when it came to dealing with the far right, suddenly went into overdrive when pursuing an RTE journalist who brought to public attention the shameful racist violence and Garda indifference at the former Crown Paint site in Coolock where there has been much conflict and intimidation in recent months.

Those tuning into the documentary not only watched open vulgar racism and violence, but also viewed An Garda stand with eyes wide shut while a reporter was intimidated and assaulted in a bid to deter him from bringing into the public sphere the depravity that comfortably exists within the anti-immigration protest movement. It also showed the desperate pleas made over the phone from workers for Garda assistance, a Mayday call that went ignored. At the next fancy dress party guests will not turn up, later explaining that they went as Gardai. Those Gardai that were on the scene were woefully ill-equipped to deal with what unfolded. And this after the force took considerable criticism after it was left wholly unprepared for last November's riots in Dublin. As my wife commented on Twitter: 'it is unfathomable that you are always caught unawares.'

So, what has An Garda management prioritised?

According to a report, the RTE journalist whom An Garda had failed to safeguard from intimidation had earlier been targeted at his home by cops who arrived with a court order stipulating that Barry O'Kelly hand over his footage to them. Unsuccessful, An Garda brass then moved to serve him with the order on RTE premises. When that also failed the brass then tried to obtain RTE footage just hours before the documentary was scheduled for broadcast. Eventually, after the documentary was aired, armed with a further court order, An Garda succeeded in obtaining a promise from RTE that it would provide the footage once appropriate measures had been taken to protect sources.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, whose head has thus far been guillotine-proof, complained about not finding out about footage until eight weeks after the disturbances. Perhaps had he been interested in properly investigating the event he would have discovered that such footage existed. Who seriously would voluntarily present their footage to the very force that turned its back on distress calls for emergency assistance?

In a serious rebuke of the government and police strategy for dealing with far right violence, a retired senior garda observed that:

This Government, the Government of law and order, has allowed this, and the leadership in the Garda haven’t a clue about operational policing . . . In fairness to the British government, when the gun was put to their head with their far-right rioting over there, judges were picked and straight away into the court and jailed for three, four, five years and that it killed it instantly. But here we are watery and we’re debating and talking about hate speech legislation for a year-and-a-half and allowed these thugs to gain ground.

Journalists gather information with which to keep the public informed. They are news collators not evidence gatherers. When policing agencies develop a sense of entitlement that journalists do their work for them, they place in serious jeopardy the journalists who have procured material for the purpose of informing the public. They also undermine the vital function of journalism. With recent exposure of PSNI spying on journalists preceding the seize operation mounted against Barry O'Kelly and RTE, journalism on the island of Ireland faces a considerable threat. If An Garda management had invested half the energy in pursuing those responsible for racist violence as it has put into its pursuit of journalists, the RTE documentary, so damning of Garda leadership, might not have seen the light of day, there being no need to make it.

An Garda strategy of grab a journalist, greet a racist, seriously erodes public confidence while denying the same public a right to be informed about what is taking place in its own society.

Drew Harris retires as Garda Commissioner next May. Time enough for him to do even more damage.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.