The media campaign against Fianna Fáil in government amounted to a political movement of dissent, rather than an objective critique of policy, writes Desmond Fennell.

In a recent article for the Irish Times, "Searching for the source of perpetual passivity", Dan O'Brien searched for an explanation for "the very limited political and societal reaction to the country's economic crisis". Contrasting what he saw as the mild public reaction in Ireland to that which led in Iceland to "the toppling of a government" and in Greece to "violent demonstrations", he found the explanation for the Irish difference in the Republic's "weak infrastructure of dissent".

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Ireland's press regulation system is quietly going about its business, like a submarine beneath the surface of the fractious media world, writes Angela Long

 

 There’s no great problems with press misbehaviour in our land, it would seem from the man who ‘polices’ it, the Press Ombudsman, John Horgan.

 Only two of 315 complaints he received last year were sufficiently intractable to go to the Press Council. Resolution of one kind or another settled most, while some complaints were found to have no substance.

 The Press Council of Ireland published its latest report on April 1. Unfortunate timing for any august tome, but this responsible document could not be mistaken for humour.

The greatest cause of complaint, according to Professor Horgan, is truth and accuracy – or rather, a lack of, in reports.

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RUPERT MURDOCH is used to winning. Sometimes the battle is long and expensive, but the aged dictator of News Corp has the stomach and the funds. And so again, in Britain, his outfit appears to have won its campaign to own 100 per cent of BSkyB.

The rider is that Sky News must be set up as a separate company. It will be taken out from under the BSkyB, and therefore NewsCorp, umbrellas, and function as an 'independent' entity.

This is the formula that British Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt – another politician now caged in the Murdoch zoo – has accepted, allowing News Corp to win its year-long fight to gain all of Sky.

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The final nail in the coffin of quality newspaper the Sunday Tribune was hammered yesterday afternoon. Staff received letters from the examiner, Jim Luby, informing them that no buyer had been found for the troubled title, and it would not publish again.

 

 

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The media-led argument about the leaders' debate – should it happen? Who should take part? – has spun off some interesting points about the broadcasting restrictions (and exemptions) on party political material. By Angela Long

We might all be watching filmed material on the internet every day, but the colour and movement there has not come within the beady eye of the regulator as regards political balance.

[Pictured: Labour leader Eamon Gilmore during last night's debate on TV3]

Websites are not covered by the black-out on election broadcasts which is enforced from 2pm on the day before polling. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) has confirmed this to Politico.

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The Daily, News Corp's iPad-only newspaper, was unveiled in the US today. By Angela Long

Billed as the world's first entirely digital newspaper, The Daily, an App, has been six months in preparation and cost Rupert Murdoch (pictured on left) around $30 million (€21.8 m). The product is edited by Jesse D'Angelo, formerly of The New York Post, and with an alleged raft of buy-in talent, some of them big names in US journalism.

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The Sunday Tribune newspaper, which has struggled financially for several years, has been placed in receivership. Dublin receiver firm McStay Luby was appointed yesterday (February 1), the company announced.

The move was precipitated by Independent News & Media (INM), which owns 29.9 per cent of the Tribune - the upper limit imposed by a 1992 Ministerial Order intended to prevent INM from gaining full control of the newspaper.

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Mark Little, the RTE presenter who took a year's leave of absence to set up a new online news service, is not planning to return to the national broadcaster before the general election.

Mr Little guested on Marian Finucane's weekend programme in mid-January, detailing some of the big international stories of that week, such as Tony Blair's second appearance at the Chilcot (Iraq) inquiry. However he told Politico that this did not indicate he was preparing a re-entry to RTE, and he has also done similar slots on Newstalk.

Mark Little's new venture is called Storyful. It's a website containing film, audio and reports of big breaking news stories such as the uprising in Egypt this week.

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