Laws of libel `inherently biased towards the rich'

As the powerful became more powerful and the weak weaker, there was a growing need for the education of journalists, as opposed to training in the work-place, the Dublin City University School of Communications was told last night.

Delivering the inaugural lecture of the Professorship of Journalism at the university, Prof John Horgan also said the libel laws should be changed, not simply to make the journalist's life easier, but because they were inherently biased towards the rich and powerful, and were littered with anomalies and a self-help gravy train for lawyers.

He gave examples of "on-the-job training" which could be picked up by journalists to the detriment of their ability to function as journalists. These included "water-cooler journalism" which was the tendency of journalists to agree privately among themselves what "the story" was. This was, he argued, at best lazy and at worst a fraud.

He said that journalists trained on the job might learn skills such as how to second-guess their employers' and superiors' policies and prejudices, which would be useful in advancing themselves, or how to use "weasel words" to slant their reports against soft targets.

He also said journalists could learn how to flatter the rich and powerful so that they were welcomed into the "mutual admiration society" for which the only other essential requirement was suspension of the journalist's critical faculties.

While he insisted this was not a blanket accusation against Irish journalism, Prof Horgan said there were many things Irish journalists learned on the job that they should not be learning.

But he added that the role of universities was not simply to warn against lazy or improper practice.

"In this context a university education in journalism isn't just about learning things which are all too often part of `the job' and which shouldn't be."

Prof Horgan said the university should be used on an ongoing basis, its research activity and its facilities as a resource for journalism at every level. The university should, he said, develop strengths which were supportive of good journalists doing a difficult job in challenging times.

In relation to personal ethics and morality Prof Horgan said journalists who were, often rightly, critical of the arrogance of those in power could express their own criticisms with a remarkable lack of self-doubt.

"The future of journalism demands investment. But it has to be, above all, in journalists themselves and in the time they need to do their job properly. This is an area in which there are no short cuts. And we in the university stand ready to play our part in supporting, encouraging and analysing the best of journalism for the times in which we live," he concluded.