Yesterday was a big day for many Irish media outlets, who received between them €5.7 million from State media regulator Coimisiún na Meán as part of its new journalism schemes, which intend to “support high-quality independent journalism” according to the organisation.
Now, you might reasonably ask just how “independent” journalism can be when it’s receiving undisclosed sums from what is an entirely State-aligned source. And it’s important that we do ask that question, given that the majority of media outlets in the country appear to be recipients of one of those two journalism schemes.
National outlets like the Irish Independent, The Journal and The Irish Examiner are all set to receive funding under either the “local democracy scheme” or the “courts reporting scheme,” alongside local and regional outlets like, for example, the Limerick Post, the Anglo Celt, the Dublin Inquirer and CorkBeo.ie.
We don’t know – yet – just how much each outlet received, as some of them are listed multiple times under each grant, but €5.7 million goes a long way between a relative handful of media outlets no matter what way you divvy it up.
Commenting on the launch of the Journalism Schemes, Coimisiún na Meán Media Development Commissioner Rónán Ó Domhnaill said that the schemes will play an important role “in sustaining Ireland’s vibrant democracy by informing and engaging citizens on issues of importance to them. Local news is hugely important to Irish people, and these schemes will ensure that people across Ireland get the news stories that matter to them”.
Further on, he added: “The support of the Minister for Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport and his Department has been central to the funding of these Schemes, and we look forward to further engagement with the Department in the future. The Local Democracy and Court Reporting Schemes are the first steps in a roll out of at least six Schemes designed to support and enhance Irish journalism in the years ahead. Later this year two further Schemes will also open for applications, as will a second iteration of the Local Democracy and Courts Reporting Schemes.”
It seems suspect, to this writer anyway, to go from saying that the schemes will play an important role “in sustaining Ireland’s vibrant democracy” to the “support of the Minister for Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport and his Department has been central to the funding of these Schemes”.
Perhaps I’m too cynical, but I find it extremely unlikely that a minister, no matter who they be (Fine Gael’s Patrick O’Donovan in this case, recently having taken over the department in question from the deposed Catherine Martin of the Green Party) would be inclined to shape the media in a manner that would potentially make their position more precarious – which is of course what an independent media does, when it’s working as it should.
This whole framework presupposes that what’s pleasing to the people is pleasing to the Government, which, I would contend, is a fundamental inversion of democracy as we’ve lived it until fairly recently. But this is the “new normal,” and it’s everywhere.
Take for example the move by the governments and politicians of the world, but particularly of Europe, to move into the information verification space, which is entirely in keeping with Coimisiún na Meán’s efforts to provide the Irish public with “high-quality, trusted and independent news and current affairs,” as their press release put it.
A more balanced perspective would suggest that the public’s idea of “high-quality” and “independent” journalism ought to be different than the State’s, and yet we keep marching in the direction of entrusting journalism – and vitally, the stuff of its trade: information – to states.
A good example of this is the EU’s vaunted ‘Democracy Shield’ initiative, which was outlined in European Commission’s 2024-2029 political guidelines and has been much discussed since. It’s also of heightened interest to we Irish given that our man in Europe, Michael McGrath, in his capacity as Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and Rule of Law, has some considerable responsibility for its oversight.
As outlined in those guidelines, the Democracy Shield – the committee for which met for the first time earlier this week – is intended to “work to counter foreign information manipulation and interference online…The aim is to increase situational awareness, by detecting, analysing and proactively countering disinformation and information manipulation”.
“We will focus on societal resilience and preparedness, through increased digital and media literacy and boosting prevention through pre-bunking. We will create a European network of fact-checkers and make it available in all languages. We will also continue to step up digital enforcement to ensure that manipulated or misleading information is detected, flagged and, where appropriate, removed in line with the Digital Services Act.”
Democracy shield, indeed. Be thankful we have such impartial guardians standing at the gates, ready to protect us European citizens from mis- and dis-information that might lead us astray. Astray from what? Democracy, I suppose. But when democracy elects “independent and right-wing lawmakers” to the European Parliament, only for them to be excluded from the formation of the Democracy Shield committee appointment process because of their lack of ideological alignment, can we really be said to be dabbling in democracy anymore?
Because that’s precisely what happened, as reported by Euronews:
“In line with the formation of parliamentary committees last July following the establishment of the new European Parliament, far-right factions were excluded from any chair or vice-chair positions, frozen out by a “cordon sanitaire” of the larger pro-European parties which distributed the roles among themselves, leaving smaller groups unable to challenge the decisions. Patriots for Europe, the third largest political force in Parliament with 86 MEPs, were notably affected.”
At the risk of betraying my position, I don’t put too much trust in centre-left to leftwing politicians to impartially oversee Europe’s information space, and I don’t foresee Coimisiún na Meán’s journalism funding schemes contributing very much to the defence of a “high-quality” and “independent” media space. Quite the opposite.