While casually reading the Sunday newspapers yesterday I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the reporter that lead to Trevor Sargents departure from government last week.
It seems that Conor Feehan of the Evening Herald is being subjected to a Garda investigation to find out which member of the Gardaí became the source of the story.
The Sunday Tribune reported that “detectives have carried out a preliminary analysis on the mobile phone traffic” of the said reporter.
Fair play to the Evening Herald who the Sunday Tribune also report “will refuse to cooperate with the investigation”.
They should not have to reveal their source and I think it’s ludicrous that the Gardaí backed by Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, are taking such a stance on this. Of course it’s a serious matter, but was it not in the public interest that this story be revealed?
This attempt to smoke out the source reflects on a government that is struggling to stay together and an Garda Síochana who are obviously embarrassed at the release of such information.
To make matters worse for our dear Government to whom we owe so much, the Sunday Independent yesterday published a poll showing that 82 per cent of the public no longer believe that The Green Party and Fianna Fáil trust each other.
So, I’m just curious, how long do we think this Government are going to survive?
JOC
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Yes, ditto. Fair play to Conor. He and I were in college together, so he has my support as well. One thing though Joanne, you need to embed the links behind words. There are no links, images or any feeds in this blog, and in the other one you have just pasted it into the blog as raw html. There's a video tutorial on this available on the teaching page on my website. TF
ReplyDeleteI know it is right to protect your source, but what if your betrayal of that source is in the public interest. While studying media law last year I came across the Martin-Clark (2003) case-where a journalist visiting a loyalist prisoner who was inside for armed robbery boasted about taking part in a parliamentary killing. This journalist then gave evidence in the subsequent murder trial.
ReplyDeleteYou may say that yes this is justified because it involved murder, but this was sure to have put off valuable sources because they distrusted us and our ways of deceit. Should this be a universal code with no exceptions, or taken on a case by case basis?