Ministers have halted Michael McDowell's libel reform plans at the last minute, demanding a privacy law before they will even consider making life easier for the press. Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent, examines why
When Michael McDowell brought his Defamation Bill proposal to Cabinet for approval almost a fortnight ago, there was a mini-revolt among Ministers. More than half - either at that meeting or previous ones - railed against the prospect of making any concessions to newspapers unless new restrictions were put on the increasing tendency of tabloids to write about their private lives.
McDowell's Bill would have been welcomed by the press in many respects. It would have set up a press council, but one that would not be appointed by the Government. It was to bring in a new libel defence of "fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public importance", which would have made it easier for the media to defend libel actions arising from bona fide errors in otherwise well-researched material. It would have allowed the press to make quick apologies for errors without prejudicing their defence in court.
But the Cabinet wasn't having any of it. Willie O'Dea was one of the few Ministers who supported the thrust of what McDowell wanted to do. Others, however, listed examples of press intrusion or what they believed was bad journalistic behaviour.
McDowell told the Dáil on Thursday that he hoped to publish the heads of the Defamation Bill in autumn, and hoped to bring proposals for a Privacy Bill to Cabinet at the same time. But there is a growing belief that it may not be as simple as that.
In discussions in recent weeks, several Ministers have betrayed a visceral dislike for the press. Some journalists believe that it is not simply unjustified invasions of privacy to which they object, but legitimate journalistic inquiry too.
However, a growing number of those around the Cabinet table have personal experience of being treated badly by the press. As competition has grown with the introduction to Ireland of many British-owned titles, the tabloid end of the press has begun to report more and more on the personal lives of politicians. The effect has been to turn Ministers even further against the notion of libel reform. Rather than seeing it as a contribution to enhancing the health of democracy, they see it as doing a favour for interests that are hostile to them.
When Maire Geoghegan Quinn decided to quit politics in 1997 she cited media intrusion into her private life as a major factor. In January that year the Sunday Independent reported that her son was among six boys expelled from a school arising from a particular incident. The case caused genuine annoyance among many politicians: it was the most high-profile evidence that the traditional Irish media practice of keeping away from politicians' private lives was coming to an end.
Martin Cullen had the roughest time of all Ministers recently, and the treatment of him incensed Cabinet friends and enemies alike. At the time of the controversy over Cullen's hiring of Monica Leech as a public relations consultant, Ireland on Sunday, the Evening Herald and others wrote the story in a way that suggested the two were, or had been, having a personal relationship - but there was no truth in this.
Cullen and his family were subject to media harassment and innuendo-laden press coverage anyway. Reporters from Ireland on Sunday went to the home of his ex-wife and his children to ask questions about this. They contacted other family members. They stalked Cullen and his current partner, photographing each of them. They travelled to the home town of his current partner and reported the views of the townspeople about their relationship. The political effect was to unite Ministers against what was seen by all of them as an appalling intrusion, unprecedented in its brazenness.
THE FUSS THAT was made in 1994 over Brian Cowen's undeclared £650 shareholding in Arcon enraged him. As a Minister, Cowen granted Arcon a mining licence. Cowen apologised to the Dáil for not divesting himself of the 1,000 shares on becoming a Minister in 1992. However, he felt that the suggestion that his very modest shareholding would influence his decision was ludicrous. Cowen insisted he had simply forgotten about the shareholding, and within a week of the story breaking almost all political journalists believed him. But the Minister believed that the initial coverage caused him unjustified damage.
Cowen was also annoyed at the report earlier this year of his drinking with Fianna Fáil colleagues well past legal closing time in Dublin's Foley's pub on Budget night. In this case, however, the public interest element of the story was clear: drinking after hours is illegal, Cowen is part of the Government that makes the law, and John Deasy got fired from Fine Gael's front bench for breaking the smoking ban.
Then there is the constant pursuit of the Taoiseach, and the tabloid interest in any detail of his private life that they can get. In recent weeks the Evening Herald has published several times a photograph of Ahern and a woman who they describe as his "new love interest". Photographers hang around outside his house hoping to capture something interesting. In recent years photographs have appeared in the tabloid press of Ahern on holidays. One incident involving pictures of him in his swimming togs at a pool in Lanzarote greatly annoyed him. His Cabinet colleague, Dermot Ahern, says it was that holiday - during which, he says, there were press photographers "behind every bush and stone" - that has convinced him [ Dermot] of the need for a privacy law.
However, Bertie Ahern has also facilitated coverage of his private life, talked about his relationship with his daughters, and posed for pictures with them. This fact makes some newspaper editors argue that he has made aspects of his private life "fair game".
The Minister sponsoring the defamation reform, Michael McDowell, has seen his family's business in the press too. He was incensed when the details of an assault on his son and the subsequent reporting of this to the Garda made headlines in tabloids.
The Star newspaper has run something of a campaign in relation to McDowell, portraying the erection of security gates at the entrance to his home as a matter of great national importance, as well as turning a dispute between the Minister and the Garda over the Garda protection at his home into a saga that ran for weeks. Planning complaints about his holiday home in Roscommon made headlines too, with repeated photos of the house in question on tabloid front pages. Ultimately, McDowell was vindicated in relation to his house.
Last summer Ireland on Sunday brought us photos of bare-chested Deputies Tony Gregory, Bernard Durkan and Rory O'Hanlon on a glass-bottomed boat trip in Australia. Well, actually, theirs were only small black-and-white photos. The centrepiece involved three large colour photos of Liz O'Donnell in a bikini and a couple of Mary Hanafin in a swimsuit.
The presentation of this material in Ireland on Sunday ("Liz, a real Aussie Barbie" ran the headline) deeply annoyed O'Donnell, Hanafin and many of their colleagues. It also took away from the fact that there was a legitimate matter of public interest at the core of the story. Scrutinising parliamentary trips is a legitimate and worthwhile journalistic exercise.
OCCASIONALLY, REPORTING ON politicians' holidays is too. When Mary Harney, Charlie McCreevy and a group of friends took a rent-free holiday in August 1999 in the South of France villa owned by businessman Ulick McEvaddy, the press was quick to point to a potential conflict of interest. McEvaddy wanted to build a second terminal at Dublin Airport, and was seeking to persuade the Government of the merits of some other ideas of his. Harney and McCreevy were Ministers in a position to influence the decisions on these. The two Ministers were furious that their holiday arrangements were all over the papers - no doubt they felt their privacy was invaded. But both also included the relatively modest gift of the loan of the villa in their annual declarations of gifts and donations received, indicating that they too saw the connection between that holiday and their public lives.
Ireland on Sunday (yes, again) did a feature on the "fatties" in the Cabinet, running photos of various Ministers and giving them a rating - depicted by hamburger symbols.
Then there was the News of the World's reporting that Dr Jim McDaid, who was a Minister at the time, was involved in a relationship with an RTÉ newsreader, complete with stalker photos taken outside a flat. Ireland on Sunday also ran a series of photos of Dr McDaid at a social function at which he had an apparently chance encounter with the Taoiseach's wife, from whom Ahern is separated.
The fact that politicians use their personal lives at times as part of the image they want to present to voters leads tabloids to argue that if the image being portrayed is not a correct one, they are justified in "exposing" this.
This defence is often stretched beyond breaking point to defend intrusions, which have no public interest justification. It allows these newspapers arrogate to themselves great power to do what they like.
In recent weeks Ministers have realised that they have power to decide whether or not to make life easier for the press. And they appear to be determined to use it.