Results 11,861-11,880 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank Dr. Mercille. It is one thing to feel pressure as a journalist or to believe something has been implied to a journalist, but it is another thing for the journalist to actually act on it. Does Dr. Mercille have any specific evidence of a journalist changing what he or she was going to write or report based on the threat, either specific or implied?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: By any interests.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: Does Dr. Mercille have any evidence himself?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: From any information given to him or from his research, directly interviewing people, have journalists said to him-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: In Dr. Mercille's own study, with regard to discussions with journalists or investigations into how journalists can be affected by elites, he does not have an example of that.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: Is Dr. Mercille speaking about implied rules of the game within a profession?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: Dr. Mercille believes that ownership of media impacts upon editorial decision-making and media coverage. Does he have any evidence of a media owner interfering with an editorial decision or reportage by a media organisation?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: Can I take from what Dr. Mercille just said that editors are not independent-minded and exist only to impart the views of their owners?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: So, a business owner leads to an editor with business interests or interests in terms of reflecting the business community or a certain industry in a particular light.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: In terms of different types of ownership, for example, State broadcasters, is it the case that the persons in charge within the State broadcaster reflect the Government point of view?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: Would that stand up to scrutiny, in terms, for example, of coverage by RTE of the Government over a range of issues?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: In terms of Government's attempts to achieve certain policies, Government representatives and politicians are challenged robustly every day by RTE on television and radio as to their viewpoints in that regard, often to the point that it undermines the Government.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: It is not for me to disagree. I cannot go there. I have one final question in relation to other forms of ownership, such as trusts. We are all familiar with trust ownership of a media organisation, as is the case in respect of The Irish Times. How are we to understand that a trust has an influence over editorial decision-making when a trust is made up of a number of different people?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: By way of clarification, I take it Dr. Mercille is not implying that because The Irish Timesmight take a socially liberal point of view on an issue, its ownership is a better model and is not influenced. Is he making a correlation between the political viewpoints and then drawing the conclusion that, therefore, it does not have a negative influence on how it is edited?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: Following on from Deputy Higgins's last question, if we accept that ownership and sources of funding for media outlets had an unwanted impact on how the crisis was covered and on coverage pre-crisis and subsequently, what changes need to be made in terms of the funding structure and ownership of media, outside of things like philanthropy and so on?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: I am going to run out of time. As there is a commercial aspect to media in this country, do we need to introduce laws to protect ourselves from the negative influence of commercial interests? I am talking about media ownership concentration and concentration of advertising for a particular sector. Do we need to ban property supplements?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: Are there ways we can protect both journalism as a profession and the public from negative commercial interests in the media?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank both witnesses for attending. I wish to ask Mr. Vaughan about the written opening statement he gave to the committee. He mentions that in specific cases editorial positions remained consistent, even when significant advertising clients objected to articles concerning them and threatened to withdraw their business. How would that have come about? Would an advertiser have made...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (25 Mar 2015)

Eoghan Murphy: Mr. Vaughan mentions specific cases, and few and far between. In his recollection it would have been through a reporter saying they had written a story and an advertiser had complained to the reporter about the story.