The Minister of State articulated very well the purposes of this Bill particularly in implementing elements of the European Media Freedom Act. It is important to note that Ireland has always performed well on press freedom indices. Reporters Without Borders, RSF, which is journalists making their own assessment, has placed Ireland’s ranking over the past number of years as "good", which is the top placing, when it comes to media freedom. It is worth noting Ireland is one of only six countries, along with Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Denmark and the Netherlands, that have been consistently rated as good by RSF. In the past Freedom House used to conduct the world press freedom index which, again, always found that Ireland had a very good reputation when it came to press freedom. This is critical to any democracy. It is vital that journalists can always speak truth to power, that they are free from political pressure, that we have transparency in terms of media ownership and we have a plurality of views particularly, as Deputy O’Donoghue just mentioned, in the battle against misinformation and disinformation in the modern age and in the age of artificial intelligence. That is critical. The role of the Irish media in that space is commendable. It is healthy that we debate media in this country and that it is allowed to happen. For the most part, we are incredibly lucky that we have quality broadcasters, whether we are talking about RTÉ, TG4, Virgin Media or local and community radio or television, and also when it comes to the print media. We are very fortunate to have a good and diverse range of views in our print media at local and national levels. They do a very good job generally and are an essential part of our democracy, particularly if we talk about local media. Their important role in reporting on local news, local council meetings and what goes on in our communities is something we take for granted. We can contrast that with some of the news deserts that exist in many other parts of the world. Part of the problem with the polarisation of politics in the United States is that they have lost a lot of the local and even state-based news media that used to exist. The setting up by the previous media Minister, Catherine Martin, of the local democracy fund to support that reporting was critical. On the Government’s commitment in the broad area to ensure a free and fair media, the reforming of the defamation laws to allow for fair comment is very welcome. Addressing the problem of SLAPP, strategic lawsuits against public participation, is also something that is very important. We should never see a situation where politicians or those in positions of power use the legal system to try to inhibit good and fair journalists from doing their job. That is not to say that media should be above criticism but a healthy debate is one where journalists challenge us, as politicians, and we equally challenge the media around news stories. In that sense, it is worth praising, for instance, some of the investigative journalism by RTÉ where it did speak truth to power in recent times which had an impact in here. "Inside Ireland’s Nursing Homes", which was broadcast last June, with Lucy Kennedy and Aoife Hegarty, exposed what had been going on inside some of our nursing homes which demanded a response. Joe Galvin’s "Forced Fashion" looked at how cotton from labour camps in Xinjiang was finding its way onto Irish shelves. That sort of quality investigative journalism, free from political interference, is critical. RTÉ current affairs should not think it can be above criticism. For instance, I regularly criticise the imbalance of many of the programmes on RTÉ which give disproportionate coverage to smaller and fringe political parties and, indeed, to smaller and fringe views. However, for the most part, we are fortunate that we have a very pluralistic media that is open to express a wide range of views. As the Minister of State said, while the Bill does not deal with every aspect of EMFA, it focuses primarily on media plurality and advertising by public bodies. I welcome the powers that are being transferred to Coimisiún na Meán which will mean that as an independent regulator there will be no perception of political interference in some of this area. I have been quite impressed to date by Coimisiún na Meán’s operations. It is critical that it is properly resourced. We need to look at some of the powers in specific areas but as a relatively new regulator, it has done well. The Minister of State made the point about the turnover threshold and that is particularly important. We need to address those challenges around media ownership. This is a concern which is flagged occasionally here when we see mergers and so on but we have to avoid the situation we have seen in the United States, for instance, where Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, decided to buy The Washington Post, once one of the greatest newspapers in the world but now only a shell of its former self and the editorial independence, which we would expect in this country of a national newspaper, no longer exists. There is a slight loophole. While the legislation would prevent a similar situation happening here of a wealthy individual or online platform trying to buy what we might call one of our traditional media, a newspaper or whatever - there are restrictions already in Irish law which are further enhanced by this Bill - as we move into the digital world, there is no real restriction on, say, a wealthy individual setting up an online political news platform, or whatever, and pumping money into that. I raised this with the Standards in Public Office Commission, which accepted my argument. While somebody like Jeff Bezos could not necessarily come in here and buy The Irish Times, Irish Independent or whatever, there is no barrier to an international or domestic Jeff Bezos setting up an online news platform and pump what I would see as political donations into that space. On advertising by public bodies, the measures contained in the legislation are welcome. When he was Minister for the Gaeltacht, the Minister, Deputy Jack Chambers, brought in a requirement that a lot more advertising would be done trí Ghaelige. At least 20% of advertising is now in Irish on all sorts of issues. It is welcome that when we tune in to radio or TV we hear a lot more Irish. The transparency framework the Minister of State spoke about is important. I welcome the fact that we have provided support of €750 million over three years to RTÉ in order to allow the broadcaster to continue. I am supportive of that because it is critical but the problem is that it could have a distorting effect on the broader market. There is no access for the likes of Virgin Media Television or local and community radio to that funding. If we want to ensure media plurality, it cannot just be about the direct investment that is being made. That level of public funding, which I fully support because public service broadcasting is a public good, should be open to competition. Other entities should be able to apply for some of that funding in the same way as, for instance, they can apply to the sound and vision fund operated by Coimisiún na Meán. If we are to guarantee media plurality, we cannot have a situation whereby one broadcaster is, in effect, very heavily subsidised by the State but there is no access for others to public resources. Other than that, the provisions within the Bill are welcome. It is part of the broader framework that we need to ensure that we continue to have media independence and plurality here in Ireland. There are other issues that we need to address around media and digital literacy and the challenges we are facing with regard to online platforms, misinformation and disinformation but that is not the focus of this Bill. This legislation is deserving of support and I am very happy that it has been brought before the House.

Sentiment score: 0.25