Privacy and freedom of the press

Martin Cullen’s account of the hounding of himself and his family by the press is quite graphic in describing what it is like to be at the centre of a press story. Last week-end one Sunday newspaper published a photograph of the girlfriend of Wayne O’Donoghue who was convicted for the murder of Robert Houlihan. Then Ger Colleran the editor of the Star complained about the Gardaí smuggling in Jean Tracy to the Court to give evidence in the Eamon Lillis murder trail. He claimed it was an attack on freedom of the press. On the basis of what Martin Cullen said we can imagine what it must be like for Wayne O’Donoghue’s girl friend and Jean Tracy two people who were caught up in events not of their making.

One of the key pillars of democracy is freedom of the press and we have been well serviced by the press in Ireland over the last few years despite somewhat draconian libel laws and the propensity of the rich and powerful to run to the high court. However the way some sectors of the press exercise that freedom is questionable and might put in jeopardy in the future the ability of the press to pursue stories of critical national importance. Gratuitous intrusion into the private life of people who are not public figures and whose behaviour has no criminal or public policy implications provides grist to the politician’s mill when they consider the provisions of the forthcoming Privacy Bill.

Taking a picture of a private person caught up, through no actions of their own, in a national story is not an expression of freedom of the press. If freedom of the press is to be defended then it must be exercised with caution so that when we really need it, as in the cases of political corruption over the last few years, then journalists will have complete legal protection to go after those who want to hide their actions from the public gaze.

Whatever judgements politicians make about limits to press intrusion into the privacy of individuals they must not be based on a few errors of judgement by a few journalists. On the other hand journalists must reciprocate by not making unwarranted intrusions into the private lives of people where it has no consequences for illegality or public policy. Selling newspapers and freedom of the press are not incompatable but neither are they the same thing.