Sir, - As the volume of political and media comment on accountability (or lack of it) grows, some basic democratic principles are still being swept under the carpet.
Recent political statements seem to indicate a belief that the wishes of the majority of the people, even in a democracy, need not always be regarded as sacrosanct. Taking a defensive stance, a few politicians have blamed the media for colouring the attitude of the public.
While some progress has been made in areas such as freedom of information and a certain amount of political accountability there is still a long road to be traversed in removing the real barriers that stand in the way of the citizen's right to know. That these obstacles will be kept in place as long as possible is obvious from the games being played with the long-promised introduction of new defamation legislation. It has been reported in your columns that the European Union has already expressed concern that action has not been taken on this front.
The outmoded Defamation Act has been, and will continue to be, used to prevent publication of details of wrongdoing, and the public will never know the full story. The Commission on the Newspaper Industry and the Law Reform Commission have, many years ago, after careful investigation, recommended changes in the Defamation Act as a matter of urgency.
The present Attorney General is on record as saying that no industry except newspapers operates on the basis that a tiny fraction of its activity can destroy it and no newspaper can effectively insure against its own abolition if a jury gets going on it in the High Court. As chairman of the Dail Select Committee on Legislation and Security, Charles Flanagan TD has acknowledged the validity of the call for reform of the current Defamation Act. Equally the newspaper industry needs to have in place an acceptable system which can deal responsibly with complaints against it. It is mainly due to the irresponsible approach of governments on the defamation issue that such a system is not already a fact of life.
Is it any wonder that, having once more considered the issue, the Regional Newspapers Association of Ireland has recently stated: "We cannot but conclude in the light of the refusals to hear our updated views, to meet us, to discuss our proposals on provision for complaints procedures in the industry, that it is symptomatic of a ploy to promote delay and leave in place as long as possible a major structure which deprives the people of Ireland of the right to learn the full and true facts about wrongdoing and perpetuates the necessity to continue taking the costly tribunal route?" Its president added that outdated Irish defamation legislation is now becoming a human rights issue in Europe.
The people of this country are entitled to freedom of information without punitive machinery to prevent the full story emerging. If we are serious about rooting out corruption and promoting real accountability this major obstacle must be responsibly confronted without delay. - Yours, etc.
Nicholas Nally, Sunday's Well, Mullingar.