Jun 30
Yesterday, I received a Freedom of Information file containing (part of) the Jobbridge database. Showing it to a friend, I ran a trivial search: Who sought the greatest number of jobbridgers? Three organisations requested 30 “interns”. For now, I can only tell you one of them. Step forward, Citizenship Division, Department of Justice and Equality. …
Jun 27
“Reporting in the regions is reverting to remote-control journalism with the proverbial email giving a convenient but one sided account of public meetings with no journalists present. Important markings such as Circuit Courts and Inquests, once the bread and butter of the local paper are going uncovered, unreported and unrecorded as regional newsrooms either don’t …
Jun 27
Local journalism is in crisis. Last week, the Offaly Express became the latest newspaper to announce it was closing down. Except, its not journalism which is in crisis. It’s newspaper publishers. And the real issue isn’t just the Big Bad Internet, but lousy management. As Senator John Whelan pointed out recently, “you have small local …
Jun 22
A few days ago, I drafted an article on the Out Of Context Defence. You know the sort of thing. A politician or entertainer says something controversial, faces a backlash of criticism, and responds by says a quote was taken out of context. In my experience, that’s usually not the case. When someone complains of …
Jun 21
Following yesterday’s report in the Irish Independent about Sinn Féin’s use of expenses to pay for party workers, both SIPO and the Oireachtas Commission are looking at the party’s finances. Readers will recall I probed the issue on several occasions last Autumn, starting with the Average Wage Question. SIPO didn’t see any reason to act …
Jun 04
Words spoken in the Dáil are privileged. There’s a reason for this. Public representatives need to be able to speak freely, without fear of comeback through defamation laws. Here’s where it gets tricky. 200 years ago, Hansard started publishing those privileged words. The Dail followed that tradition, with the Dail record. The Record is privileged, …
