Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh míle maith agat, a Chathaoirligh, agus cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, Deputy Peter Burke. A working group tasked with fighting misinformation and disinformation has been set up by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, in a bid to reduce the spread of false and harmful material. This will produce a national counter-disinformation strategy by the end of the year.

AnIrish Independentarticle noted that, "While the group is not the government's direct response to recent anti-immigration protests and the spread of anti-immigration sentiments online, it is part of a State strategy to combat false information as a whole", which prompts a question in my mind. It may not be a direct response, but could it be an indirect response? Speaking as somebody who has, for a long time, been a champion of a generous but structured immigration policy, you would have to be a fool not to notice the demonisation in mainstream media of some of those who suggest, for example, that we do not currently have enough accommodation to house our present population, or those who might suggest that it was a bad idea for our immigration system to allow thousands of people into the country with no identification papers. On a range of issues, it is fair to say that in recent years we have often seen steady misinformation produced by mainstream media, so as to advance one point of view in contentious debates against other equally legitimate views.

Ultimately, this is a problem about allowing free citizens to think and express free thoughts. People often disagree about the interpretation of facts, and on what facts should be presented to the public. Thinking and expressing thoughts is a dangerous business in a democracy, but it is also its fundamental strength. I am concerned about any kind of ministry of truth solution emerging from, or through, this working group. I have concerns that media vested interests have the valuable work of citizen journalists in their sights. I shudder when I see prominence being given, for example, to so-called fact-checkers who have themselves been shown to be notoriously partisan towards particular narratives, rather than the pure, unvarnished truth on various issues.

One reason people have turned away from mainstream media is this recent, ongoing attempt to control what people hear, and what people think about. I do not think that any such means of control would be enhanced by outcomes from this working group, unless - and I am here to be constructive and to issue this challenge to the working group and the Minister setting it up - it operates openly and completely transparently and in public; that every submission it considers be done in public; that all contributions from big tech, mainstream media, political parties and government are publicly accessible as soon as these are made; and that all discussions take place in public. I also ask that the small man or woman be well represented - and I do not mean the well-heeled lawyers of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties - so that ongoing decisions of the working group are made in public, that conflicts of interest be regularly acknowledged, and that all correspondence on these matters be made public. In this way - and I see my colleague smiling - there is less possibility of the working group being manipulated by pressure groups and those elite interest groups who currently have their finger in every government pie.

Let this working group not simply hide behind claims of public consultation; let us have complete transparency in the way that it operates. I am looking for the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, who, I admit, is not the Minister present. Yet again we have a matter being taken by a hapless other Minister, Deputy Burke, who is perfectly competent in his own domain, but not really fit to have a free thought of his own on the issue that is being raised. We are talking about limitations on freedom of expression, one of democracy's foundation stones. In conclusion, I warn that wherever ideas and views are suppressed, distrust and alienation will follow-----