Debating civil liberties: tagging or shooting

Radio Review: Two callers to Gerry Ryan (RTÉ 2fm, Tuesday) were concerned about one of the elements of the changes to the criminal justice bill as announced this week. It wasn't so much the civil liberties aspect of the thing that was on their minds - it wasn't that at all in fact, more the sheer practicalities of electronic tagging.

"Would it beep if you were leaving a shop like Tesco or Dunnes?" asked one man in a rather worried tone of voice, showing that you can't be too detailed when it comes to giving out the nitty gritty on such matters. "Is it like one of those chips you put into a dog under its skin," asked a female caller. Gerry thought "the civil liberties people" wouldn't like that at all. There was an attempt at a discussion on Tonight with Vincent Browne, (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) about the proposed criminal justice amendments and again electronic tagging was zoned in on. But like so many "discussions" on that programme lately, it didn't get much further than Browne stridently asking the questions and then promptly answering them himself, only pausing to harangue his guests - who for some reason don't seem to mind the verbal lashings.

They've moved far beyond the niceties of tagging in Rio de Janeiro in their bloody war against the gangland drug trade there. In one of the most socially divided cities in the world, Angus Stickler (Assignment, World Service, Thursday) reported that police shoot dead nearly a thousand people every year amid allegations of rogue officers operating death squads. The shootings are always in the poverty-stricken favelas or slums - a world away from the glitzy nightlife and glamorous beaches of Copacabana. A former police ombudsman Prof Julita Lemgruber explained to a clearly horrified Stickler that 60 per cent of the fatal police shootings in Rio were in fact summary executions.

Last March, 29 innocent favela dwellers were shot dead on a single day by what turned out to be a gang of rogue policemen intent on sending a message to their reform-minded bosses of what would happen if they tried to dismantle the police-operated protection rackets and death squads.

Maybe that massacre made the small print here - but getting to grips with the news agenda is getting harder and harder. All week there were hourly news bulletins on the deteriorating health of ex-footballer George Best. There were interviews with his manager, his son, the doctor, all we were short of was his local publican lamenting the downturn in trade. Of course people care, but wasn't his protracted deterioration over the week a matter for his family, and certainly not the sort of "news" that should have shoved the immense human tragedy of post-earthquake Pakistan out of the headlines.

One of the best reasons to listen to Today with Pat Kenny (RTÉ Radio 1, Monday to Friday) is his roving reporter Valerie Cox. The programme has always had reporters, but with Cox you don't have the sneaking suspicion that she desperately wants Pat's job. She seems to relish being out and about, winkling stories out of people and bringing an upbeat enthusiasm to every report. Only Cox could have made a series of reports on roadside dumping sound riveting. On Monday, she was in the midlands with Minister for Education Mary Hanafin who was on an official visit to an impressive new school. It would have been more insightful had Cox persuaded the Minister to join her on an earlier series of reports on some of the country's most dilapidated national schools.

"It's time for me to go home and stay home," said veteran broadcaster Ciarán Mac Mathúna (Morning Ireland, Friday, RTÉ1) who after 50 years on air will broadcast his last Mo Cheol Thú on Sunday. Seamus Heaney paid tribute to the man with one of the most recognisable voices on radio. He mentioned Mac Mathúna's integrity and his intelligence. When you hear his voice, Heaney said, "you feel safe".

On Thursday Eamon Dunphy (NewsTalk 106) found himself in the familiar position of making the news instead of commenting on it during his programme's round up of the morning's papers. His guest reviewer, Michael Clifford, was able to tell him that his TV performance the previous night, where he lost his temper during a discussion on Roy Keane, had earned him several column inches - the word motormouth featured large.

"Just adding to the gaiety of the nation" said Dunphy, who later chatted to Gerry Ryan (RTÉ 2fm, Thursday). The reason why he lost it, he said, was that Bill O'Herlihy had tried to base the discussion on Keane on articles written in what Dunphy called the UK gutter press including "the Mickey Mouse column written in the Guardian by Niall Quinn".

"I like rebels," said Dunphy, mischievously stating the obvious, "I like people who speak their mind."