Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am truly happy to have the opportunity to speak on a very important debate on the role of journalists in conflict. The saying that truth is the first casualty of war has always reflected reality. Winning the propaganda war is generally considered almost as important as progress on the battlefield in any conflict. That is particularly true of holding on to home support for the actions of government and agents of government.

Let us look no further than the narrative of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, which is peddled daily by Putin and his echo chambers across the world, that there is no war, just a special military operation, and no imperial ambition of conquest, just a campaign to denazify. Joseph Goebbels said that the bigger the lie, the more it will be believed. I am afraid there is more than just a semblance of truth to that statement. At a time when news is instant and even visual evidence can be easily manufactured, the importance of the impartial voice and eye is critical to our understanding, causes and outcome of conflict.

Free journalists with free access are our best shield against the big lie. One journalist with such an eye and voice was Shireen Abu Akleh. A Palestinian witness to truth, respected across the journalistic world, Shireen was a household name throughout the Arab world as she reflected the daily life and experiences of Palestinians under Israeli rule, for her network Al Jazeera. Shireen Abu Akleh was shot in the head on 11 May as she did her work as a journalist, reporting on a raid of the West Bank city of Jenin by Israeli defence forces. Her employer, the much respected Al Jazeera network, called it a blatant murder, a heinous crime that intends to prevent the media from conducting its duty. There must be an independent thorough investigation of this shocking and disgraceful act. No civilised nation should seek to impede full accountability for this obvious public act of violence.

The disgraceful scenes at Shireen's funeral, when Israeli military personnel attacked the funeral procession, kicking and hitting mourners with batons, was the final act of disrespect, as well as an act that clearly showed they believed they acted with complete impunity. A journalist doing her job, clearly wearing a helmet, wearing body armour with the word "PRESS", was shot dead. It was an assault on all journalists and all who try, in the most difficult of places and the most difficult of places, to ensure the truth is made known to the world. It falls to us to take up Shireen Abu Akleh's mission by ensuring that her final story is told truthfully and that those responsible for her death are brought to justice. As an aside, I hope the Proceeds of Crime (Gross Human Rights Abuses) Bill, which will pertain in this jurisdiction to those in any way associated with acts of human rights violation, will be enacted by the Oireachtas in this session.

Various different versions of what is said to have happened have come out since 11 May, provided by many spokespersons for the Israeli defence forces. That must end. Investigators who are clearly impartial must be allowed to bring the truth into the public domain with rigorous and impartial analysis of the facts. They must now be allowed to set about this work. Journalists in every conflict zone put their lives at risk so that the rest of us might get the real picture of unfolding events. Democratic governments and parliaments must afford those journalists doing that job the best protection they can in carrying out this most difficult task.

I began by saying that the truth is often the first casualty of war. The capacity to disseminate information was never greater than it is today. Every person with a mobile phone is a potential publisher, film maker and film distributor. In a potential and actual sea of information and data, how do we as individuals and communities determine what is true and what is not? The responsibility of social media platforms to be accountable for the content they distribute is a matter that is under debate in this Parliament, the European Parliament and across the free world. Democratic nations should not franchise this responsibility to commercial actors. The recent debate about the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk and his view of providing an unregulated, or at least a loosely regulated, media platform brings additional focus on this matter. It is not acceptable that such an important function could be given to an individual who has simply amassed sufficient wealth to buy a hugely impactive mechanism for communication. I know individual nations are limited in what they can do to control such matters.

The notion that in the final instance it would be a matter for any wealthy individual to determine what is presented to the world as truth is clearly unacceptable. Most people now turn to trusted sources, and ultimately, to trusted journalists, as the only way of ensuring the information they access is accurate, true and fair. Many previous speakers have instanced the work of journalists and Irish journalists, and their support teams, including cameramen and sound people who travel with them. They have not only put themselves in harm's way, but have actually died bringing us the truth. They need our protection and support. When there is a blatant assault on a journalist, we need to be united and clear in our condemnation of that, but we must have some international mechanism to bring authorities who commit or permit such atrocities to account.

I welcome the very strong series of statements made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in this House today. However, we need to go beyond that, and have a mechanism where the civilised world can act in unison against acts that undermine the capacity of all of us to hear and see the truth. I recall, many years ago, reading Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn'sOne Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Solzhenitsyn was an individual who suffered greatly. He was sent to the Soviet Gulags. He was fixated by the truth, and how the truth was perverted in Soviet Russia. Unfortunately, the truth is still being undermined and perverted in the current Russia. He said: "The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie". Our job is to ensure we do not condone the lie, accept it, or allow it to remain on the record.

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