Sir, – Una Mullally's column on Sinn Féin's defamation case against RTÉ ("Politicians should reform libel laws instead of using them", Opinion & Analysis, May 9th) is slim as to facts.
What is her evidence that there is a “political and media narrative that has emerged around this case, which insinuates that taking defamation cases is a sport specific to Sinn Féin”?
Or that “there is a general bias in the Irish mainstream media against Sinn Féin”? She’s simply wrong that “RTÉ is a media organisation that is chronically careful . . . because it’s a target for litigation again and again”.
RTÉ is a public service broadcaster with a long tradition of ground-breaking investigative journalism which only retains the trust of its viewers and listeners for as long as its editorial standards are rigorously applied (which has not always been the case).
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It doesn’t have – or want – the freedom your columnist has to fling out opinions as if they were facts. Also, if she ever gets round to naming names or giving examples, it would be fascinating to hear who are the “broadcasters [who] have emerged who are so smart, so deft, so capable of laying into someone without triggering these legal laser alarms, that they can take someone to task effectively, and dismantle their arguments without ending up in court”. They sound fantastic – in every sense. – Yours, etc,
DAVID McKENNA,
Dublin 8.