Complaints board runs into 'Wall of Silence'
national |
miscellaneous |
feature 
Tuesday November 19, 2002 03:45
by IMC Editorial Group - IMC Ireland
The Garda Compaints Board held a press conference about their
"Reclaim The Streets" investigation and told the assembled journalists
about the difficulties they experienced in trying to get to the bottom of the matter, with
Gardai failing to identify their colleagues and generally refusing to
assist the work of the inquiry. Media reports are focusing on this
particular issue, and once again radio call-in shows are full of discussions
about the rights and wrongs of what happened on that day and the
continuing fallout.
But there are many unanswered questions that are for all purposes being ignored by most journalists. It seems as if the latest information from the Complaints Board raises more questions than it answers. The problem of the extremely limited powers of the board to compel witnesses or take serious action, raised when Indymedia reported on the establishment of the investigation, has not gone away.