With rising crime, mounting protests and an undermanned police force with no morale, society in Ireland is at breaking point. So the recent news of Gardai incursion into press freedoms should not be a surprise at all.
A few days ago, Gript Media posted a statement regarding a recent court order that had been granted. According to Gript:
The order instructed Twitter (now X) to hand over Gript Media’s private messages, as well as the personal details and IP addresses of everyone who had logged into the Gript X account over a specific period….Using a law originally intended to give An Garda Síochána the power to pursue investigations into money launderers, drug traffickers and terrorist financiers, An Garda Síochána secured a Section 63 order giving them the right to spy on a news organisation – on what appears to have been nothing more than a hunch.
The justification used was that Gript had published footage on their YouTube channel of the recent Newtownmountkennedy disorder where one Gript reporter was pepper sprayed. Understandably, the organisation “…consider this act by the state’s police force to be an intolerable, and egregious, attack on the right to privacy and the right of a free press to operate within the Republic of Ireland.”
While they are correct in their assertion, there have been various reports over the years of Gardai arresting people for disclosing information, monitoring phone calls made by journalists, seizing cameras of Press Association photographers and general unhelpfulness. So none of this should come as a surprise.
Nor is it a shock that the same people who would be outraged at a left leaning publication being subject to such intrusion are openly laughing at it being Gript. A few reasons are being flung around:
- “they’re not a real media organisation” (even though they regularly get to air questions to politicians and are regulated by the Press Code of Ireland).
- “they spread misinformation” (a loose term that can mean anything although I suspect it’s a reference to this sordid tale. While undoubtedly bad, it is interesting that the chaotic bureaucracy at the centre of the tale was not cited as being incorrect).
- “they’re far-right dog whistlers” (a get out of jail card to be used when pointed out that the Press Code of Ireland would not tolerate racist material).
You don’t have to like Gript to see that allowing Gardai unlimited powers to spy on journalists and their sources is a bad thing.
You don’t have to like Gript’s conservative, Catholic worldview to allow them the chance to express their views on an Ireland going through tumultuous change.
You don’t even have to read Gript. If you think they’re insignificant, ignore them. If you disagree with them on everything, argue back.
Don’t censor them and don’t let the state decide who you can and cannot read.
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.
An important piece Christopher. How easily those who laugh at Gript's fate forget the warning from history by Martin Niemöller. If we on the Left are to attach any value to free inquiry then it has to apply to outlet's like Gript and Spiked as much as it does to others like Jacobin and Counterpunch. We should never allow the state nor the self- appointed politically correct to dictate what we hear or read. Our right to hear and read what we choose trumps their right to silence voices they disapprove of.
ReplyDeleteBecause there is virtually nothing about Gript that I agree with does not give me any right to want it subjected to state espionage.
I hope the NUJ has something to say on this matter. It has to stand for free inquiry and not approved ideas.
Totally endorse this piece. In particular police requesting access to journalists sources is a no no in any free society.
ReplyDeleteThat's right Barry - it can no more be defended than the PSNI assault on press freedom when they moved against Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney.
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