Senator Shane Cassells: We must act now to protect our local media and safeguard our democracy

How much do you value the newspaper that you hold in your hands?

Would you care if the Meath Chronicle no longer existed and you didn’t have a weekly record of what was happening in your local area?

A record of council meetings, court reports and how your local team fared in the county championship.

You may or you may not care if this newspaper ceases to exist but as the saying goes “you’ll only miss it when it’s gone.”

The newspaper industry in this country and indeed worldwide is under huge pressure and the future of our media is in question.

On top of these pressures is the threat to the very reporting we conduct on your behalf as a result of what are called SLAPPs.

This is the term given to what is the strategic use of defamation cases against broadcast outlets to quash negative press.

These cases are taken by individuals in Irish public life, notably by elected officials, to intimidate journalists.

SLAPPs were discussed at the meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport last week.

The Committee heard from representatives of the media sector and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), providing space for them to share their concerns on the SLAPP pandemic.

Of course journalists make mistakes and when they do, the newspaper must be held accountable. There is a robust process in place to ensure accountability, enforced by the Press Ombudsman and Press Council.

However, some complainants bypass this process and head straight to the High Court, armed with a defamation case. These cases are long, sometimes lasting years, and are entirely reliant on the decision reached by the jury. These jury decisions, as we heard at the Oireachtas Committee, are often “erratic”.

Predictably, most recent cases have been settled on the steps of the courthouse, resulting in large pay outs being made by newspapers. It is easy to understand why a legal team would encourage a newspaper to settle; it is cheaper than going through a lengthy court case.

We hear from the head of Local Papers in Ireland at our committee that their legal teams advise local newspapers to set aside €100,000 per annum for settlements, enough to cripple a small media outlet.

That is a crazy cost for local newspapers to have to carry each year.

You may ask why the EU and international organisations would be concerned by these cases. Well, essentially, it is now more time and cost effective to settle a claim, than to defend the truth.

Media outlets are settling with complainants, even when the information printed was accurate and in the public interest This poses uncomfortable questions about the state of media freedom in Ireland.

The use of SLAPPs is not a new phenomenon in Ireland. It arrived from the US in the mid-20th century and has plagued newspapers since. However, the recent increase in SLAPPs is worrying.

We have arrived at a situation where a politician or political party can mute negative coverage, by shutting down the newspaper.

Our local newspapers are particularly vulnerable, as they are already under financial pressure from loss of revenue and high costs or insurance, salaries and rents. We must act now to protect our local papers and safeguard our democracy.

The response must be multi-faceted. As noted in the Committee meeting, the Government is obliged to ensure that the public is aware of the existence of the Press Council and the Press Ombudsman and to provide adequate funding to them.

Those with a complaint should first exhaust the procedures provided for by these offices before taking a case to the High Court.

In regards to legislation, the Defamation (Amendment) Bill was introduced to the Oireachtas last year. Once implemented, it will go a long way to protecting our newspapers from SLAPPs.

The Oireachtas Committee has recommended that a serious harm test be included in the Bill to protect media outlets from exaggerated defamation claims.

Apart from our domestic legislation, Ireland must support the proposed EU Directive on abusive litigation targeting journalists and rights defenders.

The Directive is a response to repeat calls from the European Parliament for the EU to take action to protect media freedom in the context of attacks being perpetrated against journalists across the Member States.

Together, the Defamation (Amendment) Bill and the EU Directive will strengthen the resilience of our local newspapers and ensure their preservation for years to come.

However, legislation can only go so far when public representatives are using SLAPPs to silence negative press. This is a damning indictment of our democracy and should not be allowed to happen