Sir, – Speaking last month at President Biden’s Summit for Democracy, Taoiseach Micheál Martin outlined Ireland’s commitment to democracy and included as an example the Government’s undertaking “to support free and independent news media through a review of our existing defamation law”.
He did not, however, draw attention to the fact that the review is overdue since 2015 and that its “imminent publication” has been frequently promised, most recently that it would be published “before Christmas “.
Our draconian defamation law has been a constraint on media freedom for many years and has been unfavourably commented on internationally by, among others, the European Court of Human Rights and the highly respected organisation Reporters Without Borders.
Defamation laws are an important measure to protect people’s rights, but when those laws threaten the very future of the media, the laws need to be reformed. Without an effective media, public debate is distorted and public discourse suffers.
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Ireland’s ability to comment credibly, at the United Nations and elsewhere, on the absence of press freedom in other countries is severely constrained by the continuing failure to reform our defamation law.
Is it too much to hope that the much promised review and reform will in fact have taken place before President Biden’s second Summit for Democracy later this year? – Yours, etc,
SEÁN DONLON,
Chair,
Press Council
of Ireland,
Dublin 2.