Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to take part in this discussion on journalists in conflict zones around the world. I thank the Minister, Deputy Coveney, for his detailed speech and confirmation that the promotion and protection of all human rights remains a key foreign policy priority for Ireland. We will hold him to account in that regard, particularly in respect of the many countries not promoting human rights, including Israel.

I note we have assumed the Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, as the Minister clarified. We became a member of the Council of Europe in 1949, the year we became a republic. I could not put it any better than the Minister so it is important to repeat what he said. He indicated the most recent figures from Reporters Without Borders provide a "grim" background to today's debate, with 939 journalists and media workers killed across the globe during the ten years from 2011 to 2020. Last year alone, 50 journalists were killed and 302 were imprisoned. Many people have paid tribute to Lyra McKee, Martin O'Hagan and Veronica Guerin, which is right, along with Simon Cumbers and Pierre Zakrzewski, who was killed with a colleague on 14 March.

The figures are grim, as has been said, so what is our role, as an actively neutral country, in the promotion of peace and the protection of journalists, who are an absolutely essential part of a vibrant democracy? We cannot have a democracy without courageous independent journalists. We have seen the work of Orla Guerin, John Pilger and Robert Fisk, who died recently. It is really important we understand the role of independent journalists is vital. We can compare it to the role of journalists who have allowed themselves to be embedded at different points in different wars - Iraq comes to mind - and we realise the importance of protecting independent journalism.

Journalists operate under constant threat and in constant fear of their lives. They lose their lives. It is important that the narrative from any dominant power is questioned, and that is what they do. We do not have narratives just from the bad guys.

There are narratives that are self-serving for all powers and at all times they must be questioned. We fail to do so at our peril as it endangers our democracy. If we look at what is and is not covered as a story, the abominable illegal invasion of Ukraine has to be covered without a doubt but the focus has been taken off many other wars. I know it is difficult but if we determine our foreign policy and neutrality by what is nearest to us and geographical proximity, which is the most human thing to do and it is right to give humanitarian aid, then we are in danger of losing the respect we have. This is one of the main reasons we got a seat on the Security Council.

A number of conflicts are not receiving attention at present. There are many reasons for this, one being they are not top of the list of journalists' priorities. I say this only to highlight it. There has been an appalling loss of life in Yemen and it is ongoing. The figures mean so little at this point because they are so high. This war is backed fully by Saudi Arabia, with which we are friends. Then we have Tigray, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Congo and Somalia. I ask that we bear in mind always that we have a very important role as one of three remaining neutral countries to use our voice at all times to question. Part of this questioning has to be done by investigative journalism. The other part has to be done by democratically elected Deputies in the Dáil and parliamentarians elsewhere. The protection of journalists has been recognised for a very long time. We can go to the Hague Convention and declarations as far back as 1899.

In Ukraine we have lost seven journalists since the invasion. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which has been mentioned, is investigating the deaths of seven others. In addition, 14 journalists have been jailed in Russia, which is proceeding to introduce the most draconian legislation to silence journalists even further. Again, there is a role for us as a parliament to support good journalists in Russia and the people on the ground who do not want this war. They want the war to stop. We need to hear their voices also. We need to stand with them in stopping the war because it has to stop at some stage and the sooner the better. There is a role for all of us in this.

On 11 May, as has been mentioned and it cannot be mentioned often enough, Ms Shireen Abu Akleh was killed. She had been a journalist with Al Jazeera for 25 years. She was known for her courage in documenting the hardship of Palestinian life under Israeli rule. Words cannot cover what happened to her in life and death. It brings into acute focus the impunity with which the Israeli Government operates, and I distinguish the Israeli Government from the Israeli people. I know there are courageous people in Israel who have spoken out repeatedly about the apartheid regime - the words of Amnesty International, not mine - operating there. The government there acts with impunity. We have a report from Amnesty and the Government is still analysing it. We are still waiting for a response from the Government. I read the report. I never expected a busy Minister to read it in the first few days after it came out but it has been weeks since it was published and we have no response to it.

The failure by the Israeli establishment to carry out an independent investigation into Ms Abu Akleh's killing is nothing short of shocking and appalling. It has come back and said it was an active combat situation. I do not know how we are not calling this out for what it is. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has certainly issued very strong words. What is the next step? Last week, we heard IDA Ireland has a liaison person on the ground in Israel to bring us closer in terms of trade. The comment on this was that it is nothing unusual. Unusual or not, it is most unacceptable that we would tighten our links in this manner while this is going on. We are letting it happen in our name.

I want to mention Malta, which is another neutral country. A journalist was killed there, right on our doorstep. She was 53 when she was killed in a bomb in October 2017. She had spent 30 years as a journalist uncovering networks of corruption in Malta and abroad. Her car exploded. There is finally a public inquiry but it was precipitated by a resolution passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which shows how important that organisation is. It found the state was responsible for her death. I know there are processes in place at present. A 437-page report found the state had created an atmosphere of impunity generated by the highest echelons.

I want to mention Julian Assange, whom this and all previous Governments have utterly ignored. In 2010, this extremely courageous man published almost 500,000 documents from Chelsea Manning. Included was a video in which two US soldiers in an Apache helicopter gunned down a group of unarmed civilians. There is any number of examples of what this man did. The UK Supreme Court is stating he can be extradited. We are awaiting an announcement from the relevant minister. This man is being extradited while at the same time the UK Prime Minister is addressing Russia, and rightly so, on journalists. He is completely ignoring what is happening with Julian Assange and what he is doing in this regard.

I also want to mention Jamal Khashoggi and what happened to him in 2018. We have let this go by also without any action following our condemnation of the role of Saudi Arabia in this, while we tighten up our relationship with that country. We divide the world on the basis of who is and is not our friend. It is them and us. That is an extremely dangerous foreign policy.

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