Equality posing new challenges for media

The vigilance of the Equality Authority is celebrated by Kevin Myers (Irishman's Diary, February 2nd) and for this we are duly grateful. There is, of course, the fear that the grim humourlessness he ascribes to us means that we fail to detect any whiff of irony. But then that is the advantage of grim humourlessness.

Common sense and logic are watchwords put forward by Kevin Myers. No sooner written than abandoned in a headlong rush to fantasy. Not for Myers the tedious examination of equality legislation that is firmly anchored on the logic of merit. No long-winded exploration of exemptions that ensure common sense in the application of the equality legislation. The whirlwind of fantasy beckons and that's much easier.

We do not always display the vigilance we are credited with. We failed to respond to an earlier rejection of egalitarianism by Kevin Myers (Irishman's Diary, January 25th).

Irish society is currently undergoing a remarkable evolution in the expression of our commitment to equality and human rights. New legislation and new institutions provide the foundations for this change. These developments express how our society seeks to affirm the equal value of all people. This affirmation gives value to diversity and different identities. It invokes the need for positive action so that the effects of current and past discrimination are addressed. It seeks to ensure that all voices are heard in deliberations and decision-making.

Faced with the scale and importance of these developments, Kevin Myers's rejection of egalitarianism is frightening. He dismissed these new developments as "the croziers of mandatory egalitarianism" and the enemy of free speech. In doing so he dismissed the core underpinning value that all people are to be valued equally.

The speed of our response to Brendan O'Connor's article in the Sunday In- dependent is derided by Kevin Myers.

Equally impressive is the speed with which Myers springs to the defence of media colleagues Brendan O'Connor and Mary Ellen Synon. His defence reaches a point where one cannot criticise what a journalist writes. Clearly the priesthood of free speech is both select and fragile.

Posing egalitarianism as the enemy of free speech is extraordinary. Free speech is accorded a dominant status by Kevin Myers. It cannot be more important than mutual respect, personal dignity and societal harmony. In fact, without according a similar status to those values, free speech for all is not even possible.

This poses challenges to journalism. There are few journalists drawn from minority groups. Thus, the full range of perspectives cannot get an equal coverage. Many journalists overcome this by whom they talk and listen to, and by taking time to build an analysis and understanding of equality issues. Many, however, do not. In such a context, free speech ends up as a right of the few exercised for the few.

We need a debate on the role of the media. How can stereotypes best be challenged by the media, rather than created or replicated? What work processes are needed to inform journalists and to ensure that the media contribute to equality, rather than to discrimination? What media monitoring is required to ensure this contribution?

This is an important debate. It is a debate that will build on the very significant contribution journalists have made to the current emphasis on rights that we now see in our society. It is a debate that will challenge a vociferous, but thankfully small, trend in Irish journalists that seeks to undermine basic human rights.

We need to be clear that when negative and false stereotypes are deployed in discussing Travellers we undermine their human rights. We need to be clear that when people with disabilities are patronised and their contribution diminished we undermine their human rights. Kevin Myers did both in one article (January 25th) in defending free speech.

This type of journalism undermines human rights by promoting division and by limiting potential through ideas that misinterpret people's aspirations and capacities. Difference becomes defined in terms of deviance rather than as a source of benefit to society. Hardship, frustration and marginalisation inevitably flow where such ideas are established or affirmed.

At one point in his writing Kevin Myers states he "would no more expect Ryanair to employ me as cabin crew than I would expect NASA to nominate me for space travel". The reason given is his undeclared age. Why the lack of ambition? What about John Glenn? A career in space could be a better place - a far, far better place!

Niall Crowley is chief executive of the Equality Authority