Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

Like Senator O'Keeffe, I was aware of the conference in DCU on ethical journalism, the timing of which is appropriate. We have seen in the past 12 months a deterioration of ethical journalism throughout the world, I would suggest, and in the British Isles, including in Ireland. I make one point regarding Independent Newspapers. At least when they realised they made a mistake, they corrected the record the following day. There is nothing wrong with making a mistake although we would prefer if it did not happen particularly when translating from one language to another. At least the following day, which is this morning, the record was corrected. That did not happen in the situation down in Ballinasloe with regard to Father Reynolds. This is an appropriate time for print and broadcast media outlets to reflect on their responsibility to communicate an accurate and true message as to what is happening throughout the world, to report ethically and fairly and to ensure that discourse is informed as opposed to being led by media. The duty of the media is to scrutinise, analyse and examine but they certainly do not have a role in terms of setting an agenda. It is their responsibility to report.

I sincerely hope that the people who are at the conference in DCU have a fruitful discussion and I would suggest to the Leader that perhaps a debate on media standards here would be an appropriate topic for this House. We have led the way in having debates on issues such as job creation and disability. This House has a key role to play in setting the standards for ethical journalism here.