Mr. Harry Browne:

Yes, I think to some extent this subject was ventilated a bit in the earlier session as well about examples of really suppressing or ignoring. I have not done the research the previous witness has done in this area so I will be speaking more in generalities. I believe that journalistic professionalism in its purest version would call journalists not only to say, well, what does the Government say or what does the leading expert in the leading Irish university department have to say on this topic. I would say that real journalism means that one goes and finds the dissident. One goes and finds the voices of those who are critical of the status quo.

The idea of journalism as a challenge to power can only happen if one is seeking out the expertise to challenge that power, and if one is seeking out the voices. Dr. Mercille has covered some of this ground. One had The Economistnot Red Peppersaying in 2002 that the Irish economy was clearly overheating and that there was a bubble in property here. One had, by and large, Irish journalists working in the area choosing not to make that the main topic of conversation on television programmes and in newspaper articles for as long as that bubble was to continue. To some extent I think the burden of proof is on the other side, if the Senator does not mind me saying so; that in effect journalistic institutions would need to show that they systematically sought critical voices and to amplify and understand those reputable voices, mostly from outside the country, that were raising these fundamental questions about the state of the economy. I am not necessarily talking about who got an article on their desk and said, "No we are not taking that, it is too critical of the economy". I am talking about what I think is a fundamental journalistic duty, which is always to look for the other voice, the other perspective.