David Norris (Independent)

Members of the House will perhaps know - certainly if they consult the record - that over many years I have intervened to protect the right to privacy of citizens of this country against inappropriate media intrusion, such as the publication of the names and occupations of accused persons in a country in which people are held to be innocent until found guilty. For example, after a robbery in which a man was tied up and stabbed to death, the newspapers said he had died as a result of a bizarre sexual ritual, which was inappropriate and incorrect, and his family were extraordinarily distressed. I also spoke on the Defamation Bill, with some assistance from Senator Walsh of Fianna Fáil, and we occasioned the withdrawal of the original Bill.

It was, therefore, with some interest that I read the report of the initial stages of the inquiry in the UK under Lord Leveson, and I have a specific question to ask the Leader. Mr. David Sherborne QC made certain accusations against the British media: that they have been illegally accessing people's private voicemails; bribing employees to divulge personal information; blagging sensitive details through deception and trickery; blackmailing vulnerable or opportunistic individuals into breaking confidences about well-known people; intruding blatantly into the grief of victims of crime; vilifying ordinary members of the public unwittingly caught up in such events; hounding various well known people and their families and friends purely because this sells newspapers; and bullying those who, in seeking to question these practices, are merely exercising the same freedom of speech behind which much of this behaviour is sought to be shielded or excused by the press.

I am asking the Leader if he will try to institute an examination of the behaviour of the Irish media, because they are certainly engaging in these practices, to my absolute knowledge - through knowledge passed on to me and in my own direct personal experience - and I will be making a complaint, which I ask the Leader to take seriously, on the basis that the editor of a newspaper actually told me that certain recent negative treatments of myself were as a result of such activity, which I properly conducted as an elected Member of this House, and that this was "payback time". I regard that as unacceptable. I will be making a full statement to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges and I expect my colleagues to stand by me, particularly in light of the remarks of Lord Leveson when he said he was aware of the fact that potential witnesses, including Members of Parliament, felt threatened by the possibility of further exposure and delving into their private lives should they dare to give evidence. This is a matter that needs to be examined. I ask, first, that my complaint be treated as a matter of extreme seriousness and urgency by the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, and, second, for an examination of the way in which the media operate in this country. The British media are now, in my opinion, afraid to do the kind of things in the UK that they are prepared to do in this country because they regard us as a colony, and they regard it as appropriate to behave in this manner here although they would no longer do so in Britain.

I am asking for two things. First, I ask that my complaint, when I make it shortly, be treated seriously by the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. It is a specific complaint and will be supported by statements. Second, I am asking for an examination into the conduct of the Irish media.