The National Union of Journalists’ magazine, Journalist, has gone online, with at least the April edition only being distributed in digital form.
While the publication was previously only posted to NUJ members, it can now be viewed at thejournalist.org.uk.
A PDF version is also downloadable, and is designed for printing in A4.
Continue reading "NUJ's 'Journalist' magazine goes online" »
The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland will hear the case of restaurant review which was said to be defamatory by a jury last year.
The review of the ‘Goodfellas’ Italian restaurant in west Belfast was published in the Irish News newspaper in 2000.
Last February, £25,000 in damages was awarded against the newspaper to restaurant owner Ciaran Convery, who said the review was a "hatchet job".
Meanwhile, the reviewer, Caroline Workman, said it was "completely honest", the Irish News said the case "raises profound questions involving the freedom of the press", while the NUJ called the result “disturbing”. The appeal is due to be heard on Wednesday. (Via Greenslade)
A more up-to-date list is now here.
Since the original post was published the number of links we have to Irish journalists’ blogs has massively expanded – mostly thanks to reader’s comments on the last post.
Again, this is by no means a complete list. You can post additions, corrections, comments, and, as always, abuse below. (You can comment here without entering an email address, or name).
Adam Maguire, freelancer
Adrian Weckler, tech journalist / editor, S. Business Post
Dave Forsythe, Deputy Editor, Cork Independent
Declan Cashin, subeditor the Star; col. Irish Independent
Fergus Cassidy, freelancer
Gavin Sheridan, freelance sub-editor, Irish Examiner
Harry McGee, political editor, Irish Examiner
Haydn Shaughnessy tech journalist, the Irish Times
John Maguire, film critic, Irish Independent
John Reynolds, freelancer
John Naughton, (UK-based) columnist, the Observer
John Collins, tech journalist, the Irish Times
Karlin Lillington, tech journalist, the Irish Times
Kevin Rafter, assistant editor/political editor, Sunday Tribune
Kathy Foley freelancer, & columnist, the Sunday Times
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Andersonstown News Group
Ronan Fitzgerald, freelance journalist (the Guardian, Pitchfork)
Ruairi Roddy, technology officer, Thomas Crosbie Holdings
Ronan Price, Editor, Herald AM; tech col., Evening Herald
Richard Delevan, business editor and col., Sunday Tribune
Sinead Gleeson, arts journalist, the Irish Times
Sarah Carey columnist the Sunday Times
Tom Griffin, (UK-based)
Una Mullally, journalist, Sunday Tribune
The "pro-Nationalist" Daily Ireland newspaper has stopped printing as of Friday (BBC, Pressgazette.co.uk, their own words).The paper blames the move on lack of government funding and advertising, they add “Daily Ireland will continue on the web at www.dailyireland.com”.
When Daily Ireland launched on 1 February 2005, we had a realistic expectation that we would receive Invest NI start-up assistance. This was refused. We also expected to receive government advertisements on the same basis as the other local dailies. Instead, we were told we would have to receive an ABC certificate of distribution – a stipulation which never applied to any of the existing newspapers which were the beneficiaries for many years of huge amounts of government ad money. Nevertheless, we complied. However, when we duly received our first – and very
encouraging –ABC certificate in July 2005 the government then announced a review of its ad spending which was to last nine months.
In part contradicting Daily Ireland’s line, the Belfast Telegraph reports that “Lord Laird of Artigarvan said he was concerned about the way government had pushed funding through”.
The paper was marketed as an all-Ireland title, but as Adam Maguire points out, it was focused on Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, while not predicting the same fate, the Mayo freesheet, the Mayo Echo, is also having problems of getting Mayo County Council advertisements.
Image from ireland.com's "weather camera" vie blogspot.com
- Introduction with back-story
- March route security
- Delusional and confusing reactions and analyzes
Security, or the lack of, is something RTE have being touching on since yesterday; of the Irish blogs we’ve read had little or nothing...
Introduction with back-story
First, a half-decent introduction with back-story – another way many blogs have failed. The riot on Saturday in Dublin was a reaction to the “Love Ulster” protest. According to the organisers the “Love Ulster” demonstration was to protest and highlight over victims of the IRA, and celebrate ‘protestant culture’ (on the Last Word radio show last week, another protestants, who was opposed to the march, said such a culture was not common among all Irish protestants). The culture they spoke of is more likely a Unionist or Loyalist one, or even an Orange Order one.
The problem even the law-abiding opposition had with the “Love Ulster” protest was that it was the Orange Order using a victims group as a front in a provocative march. One of the main provocative parts talked about on the radio was that it started close to the offices of Sinn Féin; and it was too much for some that it would have passed the Garden of Remembrance, and the GPO using “Ireland’s main street”.
March route security
Dublin City Council “had no regrets” says RTE’s 6 O’clock news, apparently they done their best to secure O’Connell Street (ie nothing extra), and the police say they weren’t expecting so much hostility. The council and the police should be ashamed of them selves.
With out thinking about it too much, Blurred Keys was thinking the clash would happen closer to Parnell Square. The ill-secure building site that still is O’Connell Street was perfect for the thugs.
From the video footage, it looks like Dublin City Council did nothing new to secure the renovation works on the street. A mixture of the low and tall light fence-type barriers was a joke – both flimsy and possibly easy to knock over with just two adult males. Compare such the outer rings, the ‘steel rings’, of outdoor events, and the first two were hopeless. Transferring the building materials to one tighter protected point could have helped minimised the damage to the police and others, and the surrounding buildings.
Police planning was another farce. Saying they weren’t expecting so much hostility is bizarre. Many law-abiding and never-would-attend-a-protest type people were opposed to the “Love Ulster” march because of the Orange Order’s involvement. How exactly did they think dissident republicans and the associated thugs would react? A grouping that is considered enough of a threat to the state to be a main reason to continue the draconian Offences Against the State Act is somehow less likely then a bunch of Mayday protesters to start a violent riot.
Delusional and confusing reactions and analyzes
Disillusioned Lefty paints a rather delusional view that has the potential to misinform readers, “If not Sinn Féin itself, then its support base in the Republic is made-up of a bunch of nasty, drunken scumbags” the blog reads, some Flickr tags also list Sinn Féin. The view is ill informed – the crowd and more importantly those who acted in violent were, if the police can be trusted, mainly made up of dissident republicans, not merely republicans, namely those who would be linked to ‘Republican Sinn Féin’, not Sinn Féin.
Meanwhile, there’s been a complete over and confused reaction to the long term effects the riot will have on Dublin’s image worldwide – the rugby fans interviewed by RTE didn’t care, even a couple who were in a bar which was in the area said it’s not the worst place to be trapped in. Generally, people understand that riots are isolated events that normally don’t have poplar support. Or maybe, that’s wrong, maybe it will add to some people confusion that the north and the Republic are the same in terms of marchs and the surrounding violence? The image problem, if any, would really effect the north, adding to some peoples’ genuine fears and others list of excuses to stall the peace process.
If my experience away from the world of the internet was anything to go by, for the majority of the population, radio excelled (Today FM here, in Dublin a number of people online have said Newstalk done the same) while TV was lacking and slow in its reaction. Sky News had poor coverage, while Blurred Keys was on my late lunch sometime after the riot stated. They were going into long in-depth analyzes of the large bank robbery a few days ago in the UK, with little or no new info, while what was a breaking story, and what Sky is supposedly good at, was being ignored – guess the riot was a local story for the local people?
Blurred Keys thinks unprovoked attacks on anyone is easily wrong and condemnable, same goes any journalist, including Charlie Bird. The attack on him was disgraceful, but Bird’s reaction to the attack adds to the strange commentary. He said his attackers knew who he was, and he was surprised by the attack. How out of touch can one journalist be? Pkellypr.com calls Bird “Ireland’s figurehead journalist”, the fact is Bird can be seen as not just part of “establishment journalism” but also part of “the establishment” it self. How does he think thugs of dissident republicans would react to such a person? Maybe after an attack it is inappropriate to bring such disillusionment into commentary, but stating such is important. His comments rank alongside Marie Antoinette “If the people have no bread, let them eat cake” – so out of touch with a groups’ thinking and situation, although in this case as smaller group. I don’t agree with and can’t speak for the republicans, never mind about the dissidents, but commenting this much is needed when “the establishment” is so out of touch with them.
(One blog entry managing to attack the police, dissident republicans, Unionists, bloggers, and broadcast media – woops)
While reading the IT yesterday evening within the first few pages Blurred Keys found a bit of disgusting news, maybe more disturbing, then disgusting. When one thinks the Irish Times couldn’t get worse under Madam Editor’s rein, the Irish Times has to prove one wrong.
The news in question was that a former political editor the Sunday Tribune is joining the Times as political editor. This shouldn’t evoke such a reaction, but while Mr Stephen Collins is a highly capable
journalist, some of his passionate rants at Tribune have shown has active and obsessive anti-republican streak.
An anti-republican streak would be justified if it stopped at a fully justified disgust for the Provos past use of violence, or even their use of a threat of violence. It’s possible I’m wrong, it is fully possible that Mr Collins’ obsessive ends there, but his past writings have convinced me otherwise. His writings have lead me to believe that he is of a mindset, or close to a mindset, or a mindset underlined by the idea that there is no place for the Provos in politics.
With the Indo now at the helm of the Tribune, one would have thought Collins would have been even more at home there, but with respect, maybe even he saw that paper’s move from the serious to there trivial. But then again, will he be even more at home at the PD Times of Geraldine Kennedy?
Of course, the Irish Times has always been known for its anti-republican leanings. But with a somewhat shift to a more neutral stance, or at least a perception of such, which may have ended with Brady’s role as editor, this is a step backwards.
It’s very much so open to Collins to prove me wrong, and for the sake of the Irish Times I hope he does.
The Irish Times states that the ‘common purpose’ of all who work for the paper is to “to publish an independent newspaper primarily concerned with serious issues for the benefit of the community throughout the whole of Ireland free from any form of personal or of party political, commercial, religious or other sectional control”. The Board, and more so the Trust of the paper, allowing PD-minded people take such a grip hold of the paper, looks to be failing in this matter.
Blurred Keys is an Irish blog about print, broadcast, and online media, in ‘the State’ and afar, it’s edited by Cian Ginty
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