Independent report urges action over Irish media plurality

The plurality and independence of the Irish media is undermined by the highly-concentrated Irish media market and shortcomings in the the country’s defamation regime, according to a new report.

The independent Report on the Concentration of Media Ownership in Ireland was authored by Doughty Street Chambers barristers Caoilfhionn Gallagher and Jonathan Price, and KRW Law solicitors Gavin Booth and Darragh Mackin.

It identifies the “two most important controlling entities in the Irish media landscape” as RTÉ and individual businessman Denis O’Brien, who owns a significant minority stake in Independent News & Media.

The report sets out concerns over the number of legal proceedings brought by Mr O’Brien against journalists and media organisations, as well as “serious shortcomings in the defamation framework” in Ireland.

It concludes that there is no legal bar - either under the Constitution or the European Convention on Human Rights - preventing the Government from tackling the concentration of media ownership.

Lynn Boylan MEP, who commissioned the report, said it showed that media merger guidelines introduced by the Government in 2014 had “copper-fastened” Mr O’Brien’s hold of the media.

Ms Boylan added: “It is time for Minister Denis Naughten to seize the opportunity, following on from this report, to address the thorny issue of media ownership in Ireland.

“I believe that it is now time to establish the multi-disciplinary commission of inquiry to look at the media landscape in Ireland as called for by the NUJ.

“The Minister and all politicians must now show the political backbone required to take on those in dominant positions.”