Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Bill does not take a prescriptive approach to regulating members of the media who may or may not be permitted access to relevant child care, family law and adoption proceedings. The Bill leaves it to the court to allow bona fide members of the media to be present in certain circumstances. The formula “bona fide members of the media” has been used in other legislation. There is nothing one can do about that. It is a matter for the individual judge to be satisfied as to the bona fide nature of representatives of the press in this respect. The same approach is used in many legislative provisions, not least of which are those relating to criminal proceedings in serious sexual offence cases, where there is express provision which details the circumstances of attendance of bona fide members of the media. The experience to date is that the approach works and I am happy that it is the correct approach in the circumstances of these provisions also.

In the context of the Senator’s amendment, he says that he wants bona fide representatives of the media to be required to undergo an accreditation process to be provided by the Minister by way of regulation. I can just imagine members of the press getting into a happy state of excitement if suddenly it was to fall to the Minister for Justice and Equality to determine which particular member of the press could attend which particular court case.

I would be immediately accused of interfering with press freedom and I do not think that is appropriate. This phrase bona fide members of the media has given rise over decades to no issue of difficulty or confusion. Clearly, if someone attended a court and a judge was of the view that he was not a bona fide member of the media, or if a litigant in that court with a family case announced the person who was pretending to be a bona fide member of the media was actually a family member or nosy neighbour who was there to see what was going on, the court would be well able under the terms of the legislation to deal with that issue.