Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like my colleagues on this side of the House, I support the concept of equality and inclusivity. Fianna Fáil policy is already well enunciated in this regard and we look forward to an enlightened debate on the question of marriage equality. I intend, however, to pick up on comments by my colleague, Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú, in regard to what he considers certain failings in the framing of the motion.

I did not see the episode in question of the "Saturday Night Show" but I have paid careful attention to the fall-out. The concept of freedom of speech is a long-standing one that is found in several early human rights documents. England's Bill of Rights of 1689 granted freedom of speech in parliament and is still in effect. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen adopted during the French Revolution in 1789 specifically affirmed freedom of speech as an inalienable right. Article 11 of that declaration defines the free communication of ideas and opinions as "one of the most precious of the rights of man". The Article further states, "Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law." Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers".

At the same time, everybody, on all sides of the debate, would agree that there is no absolute right to freedom of speech. Mr. Kevin Brophy, solicitor for John Waters in the recent case, has described a statement issued by RTE in respect of the matter as "a grossly misleading version of what actually happened". Mr. Brophy stated, "[RTE] further went on to say that they took a particular course of action partly because of 'the decision by the complainants not to accept RTE's proposed remedies'". Outlining the course of events, Mr. Brophy indicated that on 11 January, he was instructed by John Waters to write to RTE seeking an apology, a retraction and the removal of certain defamatory comments from the Internet broadcast of the "Saturday Night Show". "My instructions were very clear at that time", he said, "John Waters and the Iona Institute clients wanted an apology and a retraction and nothing else". Mr. Brophy indicated that RTE had proposed a right of reply which, he said, was "like asking my clients to prove they are not homophobic". He further indicated that Mr. Waters made several attempts to deal with the matter himself, proposing the precise wording of an apology and further proposing that a donation of €15,000 be made to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to mark the seriousness of the defamatory comments.

Mr. Brophy also states:

This proposal did not come from RTÉ, it came from John Waters. RTÉ were not happy to broadcast the apology we had drafted and instead said they intended to go ahead with a totally unsatisfactory two sentence statement. Over the course of the following seven days, an unsatisfactory wording was eventually agreed and was broadcast.

He further stated that RTÉ's response "to the proposed donation to the St Vincent De Paul was that they felt the figure should be €5,000. My very strong advice was for John Waters to issue proceedings against RTÉ as I did not believe they were taking the matter seriously."