STANDARDS IN journalism are “in decline” in Ireland and some journalists are “anti-business and anti-enterprise”, businessman Denis O’Brien has told a media conference at NUI Galway.
Speaking at the Connacht Tribunecentenary conference yesterday, Mr O'Brien said newspapers had not embraced the internet sufficiently, and the Irish newspaper industry would have to "change and reduce costs and work practices". Describing himself as a media watcher since he began reading his mother's Daily Telegraphat the age of 11, Mr O'Brien said sports journalists "loved sport", but he was not sure that "business journalists love business".
“A lot of them are not trained . . . they couldn’t read a balance sheet,” he said. “There is a very real onus on communicators, and indeed educators, to encourage, support and endorse enterprise and innovation,” he said, as an enterprise culture would “lift this country out of its current difficulties”.
He said writers were “the most important part” of the newspaper “brand”. “The old principles of having great writers, local news and sport will win out as this creates the grip on the community,” he said. “Democracy depends on great journalism. Journalism standards are in decline in Ireland, the ‘red tops’ are racing to the bottom in terms of standards.
“Printing cartoons of our Taoiseach and posing as a family friend of the Taoiseach in a friend’s caravan while waiting to doorstep him at his holiday home in Roundstone is a new low,” he said.
“Also some of the personal criticism of people in public life has become too vicious. Behind every public figure you have wives, husbands, partners and family. Editors need to temper this trend.”
He added that “newspapers here have not fully embraced the internet”. Referring to News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch’s belief that media content should be charged for on the internet, he said that “when Murdoch is finished people will click and pay”. Mr Murdoch was “the innovator” and nobody should bet against him, he said.
During questions, Mr O’Brien emphasised the importance of the arts and culture, and said that the McCarthy report’s proposed cuts in arts were akin to “what you’ve seen with the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia”.
Prof Roy Greenslade of City University, London and media correspondent of the Guardian, said that “convergence” and “multi-skilling” were essential for the future of the media, and he had left the National Union of Journalists after 43 years of membership because of his strong belief that “the old demarcation lines really have to go”.
He said that collaboration between "citizen journalists" using the internet to communicate and skilled journalists was essential. Connacht Tribuneeditor Dave O'Connell said that regional newspapers were already adopting this approach through their regional "notes correspondents".
Niall O'Dowd, founder of the Irish Voiceand irishcentral.com, predicted that the future lay in "niche journalism".