Spring seeks debate on press council

The former Tanaiste and Labour Party leader, Mr Dick Spring, has called for a debate on the need for a press council in Ireland. Speaking on RTE radio, he said politicians and journalists in Ireland were involved in a mutually destructive relationship and he was worried about the future of that relationship.

The press "would say they're going to maintain standards in politics by the nature of their work, but who's going to maintain standards in journalism? . . . It's a debate that's going to have to take place on both sides."

He told RTE's Joe Duffy that while politicians were "fair game", a number of "misrepresentations and untruths" had been printed about him during his career. He was particularly aggrieved at the coverage of his son's stay in hospital with suspected meningitis last year.

"[Politicians'] families shouldn't be fair game . . . Some of the tabloids went way over the top in what was a health scare for us as a family. I think that's irresponsible but then they're out there to sell newspapers and they want scare headlines and big colour photographs."

He was "worried about the future of politics and the media [especially] in the context where the media is now driven by making money". While "the origins of newspapers were brave people who wanted to present the stories and always get the truth in the news", he thought "sometimes journalists don't realise the damage they can do. Behind every hard-nosed politician there is a person."

He did not have "answers at the moment, but somebody's going to have to call a halt in relation to standards in the media".

Asked whether journalists were too powerful, Mr Spring said he "didn't have any problem with the power of journalism as long as it's fair". He was worried about "a mode at the moment which is to pull down and destroy. There's a cynicism - it's even deeper than cynicism - in the press [which] looks for the silly side [and] the nasty side."

Mr Spring also regretted using the phrase "cancer in the body politic" to describe Charles Haughey's influence on Irish politics. "I shouldn't have used it . . . It was over the top . . . that was the heat of the time". He had come to appreciate that the word had a very upsetting resonance for many Irish families.

He said he also regretted accusing Mr Haughey in 1984 of leaking a document from the New Ireland Forum, which was the basis of an article for The Irish Times written by Olivia O'Leary.