Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I do not believe so because there are occasions on which a newspaper will admit certain circumstances look bad. For example, a newspaper may say it did not mean to treat Senator Norris very unfairly and wants to apologise to him therefor. It might also say, however, that it does not want to throw away all its defences if it gets into a legal brawl. The philosophy behind the provision, therefore, is that if a newspaper's instinct is to apologise, it should be allowed to do so. Thus, the matter would not be in the hands of lawyers who would state an apology constituted an admission that the offended party was defamed.

The provision is to try to encourage newspapers to be generous in their approach. I agree with Senator Norris on newspapers. It has been almost universally my experience that newspapers are ungenerous on the question of apologies and always seek to minimise their extent or effect, as if apologising were extracting teeth from them. This is an unwise policy on their part.

When I was a member of the Council of King's Inns, The Irish Times published an article stating I had attacked King's Inns and said it represented bad value. I was horrified because I felt all the judges and barristers would think I had become cracked and was vindictive and disloyal to an institution of which I was a member. The truth was that Senator Derek McDowell had made the remarks. I kicked up quite a fuss and stated the matter would not proceed any further if the newspaper apologised the following day. However, obtaining the apology was very difficult because the newspaper wanted to apologise to Senator Derek McDowell for confusing him with me. I stated I would sue the newspaper if it did so. It would not admit that it got the story wrong. Rather, it wanted to fudge and confuse the issue to suggest anybody could make the mistake that was made. Rather than apologising to me, it wanted to bring Senator Derek McDowell into the apology by nefarious means so as to make it all a joke. It was not a joke for me at the time.