Delay in ‘Future of Media Commission’ report publication ‘disappointing’, says chair

The Government is expected to consider and publish the Future of Media Commission report before the Dáil summer recess, a spokesman for Minister for Media Catherine Martin said.

The minister’s office was responding to queries around the timing of the publication of the long-awaited report after the commission’s chair, Prof Brian MacCraith, criticised the Government’s delay in publishing the report almost a year after it had completed its work.

“It is disappointing that almost 12 months after the completion of our work the public is none the wiser - and the media sector, which engaged with us very, very actively, proactively - still awaits the State’s perspective on its future,” Prof MacCraith said at the launch of the 2021 annual report of the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman.

The commission began its work in October 2020 to consider the future of the media in Ireland and how public funding models could sustain the media and protect editorial independence.

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Prof MacCraith, the former Dublin City University president, acknowledged the Government faced “unpredictable pressures and crisis” over the past 12 months but he hoped it would publish the report and “articulate its response” to its 49 recommendations over the coming weeks.

A spokesman for the minister said the Government was “committed” to putting in place a framework that would create a sustainable future for a “vibrant, diverse and independent media sector” and that the commission’s task was “complex” addressing issues for the media landscape over the next decade across print, online and broadcasting.

“Wide-ranging recommendations have required detailed thought and consultation and discussions involving the Taoiseach, Minister Martin and other relevant ministers,” he said.

The spokesman said that another key element of the changes was the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill that was before the Oireachtas and the new media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, which will implement recommendations in the Commission’s report.

Among the more controversial reported recommendations made by the commission is a proposal to scrap the annual €160 annual television licence and to fund RTE directly from exchequer funding.

Prof MacCraith said he could not yet divulge the contents of the report or the recommendations, but said it would require “political decisions” and that the public and State had “serious choices to make about how they wish to support the media.”

He said the delay in the publication meant recommendations about RTE were made “at a point in time” around its finances and that “some of the finer details may have to be looked at again.”

He also cautioned that challenges facing the media around disinformation were “escalating rather than diminishing” and that the earlier that recommendations made about regional media were implemented, “the better in terms of survival.”

In attending the Press Council event, he joked that he felt “a bit like Santa Claus arriving at a children’s Christmas party with an empty sack on my back.”

Prof MacCraith said the commission delivered on its remit “in very difficult circumstances right in the middle of the pandemic, on time, within nine months.”

He urged the Government to publish the report as soon as possible.

“We believe that it’s now time to act,” he said.

Fianna Fáil senator Malcolm Byrne, a member of the Oireachtas media committee, said that at a time when local media was “under enormous pressure” and certainty was required around RTE’s future, it was “incomprehensible that the Government has sat on the report.”

“The failure to publish is no longer acceptable. It should be put into the public domain immediately,” he said.

The Press Council and Press Ombudsman received 527 complaints, an increase of 50 per cent on the previous year and the second highest number received in a single year.

About 200 complaints related to the coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. In all, the Press Ombudsman upheld just seven complaints, including two about privacy issues around Covid-19.

Rory Montgomery, chairman of the Press Council, said this was a “tribute to the professionalism of the press.”

“The pandemic has surely underlined the importance of objective, thorough reporting and of well-informed expert comment and analysis,” he said.