Colum Kenny: Media mergers need to be taken more seriously

TDs and Senators of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment have a lot on their plate. Climate change alone is massively complex.

And appearing before it as a communications "expert" this month I've found it hard to see how the committee can – by the deadline set for it – give a meaningful opinion on the proposed takeover of well-known provincial newspapers by Independent News & Media (INM). Titles being bought include the Anglo-Celt, Connaught Telegraph and Westmeath Examiner. The Taoiseach has expressed concern about the merger.

For one thing, the committee and its invited experts were not furnished with the same details of the proposed merger that have been furnished privately to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), which is advising the Minister to allow the merger proceed or not. And a report being prepared by consultants appointed by Minister for Communications Denis Naughten for the BAI was also unavailable. So the committee and its invited experts had few independently verified facts to go on.

Yet there is much to consider in the public interest. It’s not just about jobs, although jobs are vitally important and those backing the merger say people could be out of work if the merger is not approved. The issue is also one of a free press that will provide a diverse range of opinions, as well as the resources necessary to ensure that we get to hear the whole truth about society.

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Media under attack

The media is under attack. The attack is overt in the United States, as wealthy right-wing forces attempt to discredit and hamper the efforts of established newspapers and broadcasters to speak truth to power, and as alternative media indifferent to the truth spread propaganda and lies to create confusion. The attack in Ireland is mainly commercial, with newspapers and broadcasters struggling to survive in a complex market distorted by online anarchy.

It matters who owns the media. As committee member Brian Stanley TD said this month: "He who pays the piper calls the tune." We cannot take a free and healthy press for granted. That's why it matters too that the Oireachtas seems so poorly prepared to deal even with a relatively simply matter such as the proposed takeover of Celtic Media.

Individual members of Oireachtas committees often have little expertise in areas for which their committee is responsible. This problem is exacerbated when areas of responsibility are multiplied. So, even if a deputy or senator is familiar with the complexities of communications, for example, he or she is unlikely to know much about climate change or the environment.

Some deputies work to brief themselves on topics under discussion. But too often the questioning at Dáil committees is unfocused and poorly informed.

Absent

Not all deputies attend even the few committee sessions that are devoted to discussing a particular matter. It was a pity, for example, that NUI's Senator Michael McDowell was absent on February 7th from the public session on INM's proposed takeover of provincial papers. And it was awkward that Michael Lowry turned up as a member of that committee.

Lowry’s presence seemed out of place given tribunal findings that have referred to a relationship between himself and the largest shareholder in INM, Denis O’Brien. As soon as Lowry asked his questions, dismissing contributions by the three independent experts present as “all very fine,” he left the meeting.

Experts had argued that those assessing any possible merger should look beyond percentages and ask hard questions about the future structure and policies, including employment and editorial policies, of the merged venture.

There are concrete indicators of diversity and plurality, outlined in a form that companies wishing to merge complete. These are a solid way of locking in guarantees that otherwise remain vague. The NUJ reminded the committee of the real difference between promises and performance in the past.

Policymakers need clear objectives in terms of a free and vigorous media. There may be jobs lost when a merger is refused, if a merger is the only option. But there are also very real costs to society, economically and otherwise, in diminishing diversity.

If there is no longer a robust media that can investigate corruption, speak out in the face of powerful bullying and stand up to wealthy vested interests, then society functions less transparently and less efficiently. The cost of media concentration to an economy and to a society is sometimes too high to pay.

Colum Kenny was a co-author of the report of the Advisory Group on Media Mergers