“Better to criminalise rather than politicise.”

Here’s something you might have missed last week.  In an interestingly timed, if much belated, intervention in the Guardian, professor of journalism at City University, self-declared Sinn Féin supporter and, in the late 1980s, a pseudonymous contributor to An Phoblacht, Roy Greenslade channels his inner Thatcher for a call for media [self] censorship when reporting on still violent dissident republican groups.  From the Guardian article In other words, by referring to “dissidents” – disparate overlapping groups that use IRA or similar in their self-descriptions – media outlets are investing them with an undeserved political …

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‘Collusion’ was RUC strategy, not RUC failing: #Loughinisland

State collusion was a ‘significant feature’ in a loyalist gun attack in Loughinisland in June 1994, according to the latest report published today by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. You can read some commentary over at The Detail here, while the publication of the full report is awaited (it is now published here). The timeline of the Loughinisland investigation should be crushingly familiar at this stage. First there was a non-existent RUC investigation, then a flawed report by the Police …

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“Roy is right to say there are journalists working for party political advantage”

Roy Greenslade has another post up on the subject of Mairia Cahill case. [Ahem, with the comments closed. Whose decision was that I wonder? Ed]. He cites a letter writer in today’s Irish Times EE Fanning (also a prolific and unremittingly pro Sinn Fein twitter writer): “Only journalists outside of Ireland have questioned the treatment being meted out to Gerry Adams… The gated community of journalism in Ireland has little time for fairness when it comes to Sinn Féin.” That’s a …

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Calumnies sting without disabling; and those stung are moved by hatred of their detractors

“Oh, yes–you can shout me down, I know! But you cannot answer me.” Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People It’s taken two weeks for a mainstream journalist to commit to print some kind of defence of Sinn Fein and raise questions about Mairia Cahill’s credibility. Roy Greenslade has interesting views on the matter, not least because he breaks the news that… …the programme itself is now under fire. It is claimed that the makers failed to take account of the …

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Strange happenings in Scotland after the ‘busting’ of Rangers?

Interesting interview with one of the members of the panel which sat on the busting of Rangers Football Club, Gary Allan QC… It’s ahead of a Channel Four news piece tonight that could be very interesting. The thing that strikes as most odd is the near professionalism with which he was harassed. Something quite beyond his own experience of dealing with criminals in his own court, he says. Adds: A QC, 32 journalists, the owner of Raith Rovers Football Club …

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Roy Greenslade on hacking, Leveson, Murdoch, the local press and dissidents

After a break of a decade, Roy Greenslade was back talking at Féile an Phobail on Thursday lunchtime, lecturing in the Falls Road library about the built up to and impact of the Leveson Inquiry. Mark Simpson introduced the journalist, ex-editor, commentator, academic and wearer of braces who has written for every national paper in London and who splits his time between Donegal and Brighton. He spoke for around 35 minutes before taking questions from an audience seeded with characters …

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“the failure of the British press to cover Northern Ireland properly”

Roy Greenslade blog banner

The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade blogged again this morning about “the failure of the British press to cover Northern Ireland properly” and the consequential “absence of knowledge among [Great] British people about the realities of life there”. I doubt that many of you have ever heard of the Reverend David Latimer, a Presbyterian minister and former British army chaplain. And it would appear that Britain’s national newspapers are determined to ensure that he remains unknown to you. Yet Latimer made history …

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The Irish News and operating profitably on the net…

Roy Greenslade has an interesting piece on the Irish News’ firewall. Not least the money figures: If you click on the Irish News website up comes a page demanding that you pay for access to a digital edition. There is a choice: £5 for one week’s editions, £15 for a month’s and £150 for a year’s. The result? According to journalism.co.uk, since its launch in December 2009, the News’s site has secured just 1,215 paid subscriptions: 525 weekly, 370 monthly …

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