McGuinness attacks 'dissident' journalists
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Thursday April 09, 2009 23:09
by Patrick Henry
This is part of a longer article in the Belfast Telegraph, called 'First Minsters take a swing at the Media' and the first bit is about Peter Robinson's attack on Martina Purdy at Stormont. This is why the article appears to start mid-article....
Not to be outdone, esteemed joint and co-equal Deputy First Minster Martin McGuinness has his own issues with the Fourth Estate these days.
Unsurprisingly our Republican co-ruler is somewhat consumed with dissidents and their doings. But even Insider ears pricked up [our ears are everywhere] on hearing the senior Sinn Fein figure had launched an attack on ''dissident'' journalists.
The unexpected outburst came at a private briefing for political correspondents with Mr Robinson at Stormont, and Mr McGuinness made clear he not referring to any of the fine men around the Executive table.
The Mid Ulster MP is normally unflappable in the presence of the Press [Unlike his power-sharing partner Peter] but said: ''We still have dissident journalists.''
Indicating that everyone knew who he was talking about, Marty opined that such scribes were writing in a way which is ''giving succour to these people.''
Insider hopes he doesn't mean us and respectfully urge the DFM to name names.
It could, after all, be quite a dangerous thing to say about people-you might even call it a smear.
That said, our own profession may also do well to re-examine the all-too-handy use of the term ''dissident.''
The dictionary reveals the word actually means ''a person who disagrees with a government or powerful organisation.'' By which token, Insider aside, there are a lot of ''dissidents'' out there.
Insider...Belfast Telegraph April 9 2009
Comments (9 of 9)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9A non- dissident British journalist fearing a return to “the troubles” wrote in the (London) Times last month.
“Easily the most eerie aspect of the last couple of days for me has been the sound on my car radio of Martin McGuiness, allegedly once a senior IRA commander, sounding just like a Northern Ireland Secretary of State from the Eighties.”
Whatever else McGuiness says about "making progress towards republican aims” and " unstoppable political dynamism towards a united Ireland ", it is surely undeniable that, at the present moment in time, he is the deputy first minister of a jurisdiction which has the British monarch as its head of state. Under these circumstances, a republican who is not a dissident isn’t really a republican at all.
The DFM's outburst against “dissident journalists” is very disturbing given the ongoing threats to all journalists in the north from loyalist/ PSNI sources : telling the truth about British collusion with loyalism has always been considered an act of dissidence in the north .
The Sunday World newspaper is published by the Independent News and Media group and has never had sympathy for the republican cause . One of the paper’s journalists ,Martin O'Hagan ,who was then the secretary of the Belfast branch of the National Union of Journalists , was working on a number of potentially damaging stories about police collusion with the LVF when he was murdered in 2001 . Despite the elevation of McGuinness , despite all the chuckles , the circles that colluded in the murder of O’Hagan are still on active service .
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the assassination of lawyer Pat Finucane by loyalist paramilitaries . Mc Guinness’ recent words are reminiscent of the remarks of the British minister Douglas Hogg the month before Finucane’s murder ,about some lawyers in northern Ireland being "unduly sympathetic" to the IRA. Republican journalists should take the first minister’s words as threats .
I'd heard about Deputy First Minister Joseph Stalin's...oh sorry....Martin McGuiness' attack on journalists too.
As a former member of Sinn Fein myself, I think he's now reflecting the kind of "top down" control that the party leadership has exterted amongst their own organization over the past few years. Exept now he's a British government minister and is seemingly attempting to brow beat the media into compliance too.
At first hand it appears like a rather pathetic hissy fit, although the consequences for Independent Journalism are very worrying.
Especially coming from the representative of a community that once valued accurate, fair and honest reporting when faced with British Black Propaganda, the 'reference upwards system', the media ban etc etc.
Its clear to me this minister is in the midst of a very public nervous breakdown and to see it being played out live on television is not only sad but fills one with a sense of foreboding . God knows what this man will actually give the green light to before hes quietly carted off to retirement . That staement could have been made by Humphrey Atkins , Don Concannon or Tom King and wouldnt have sounded any more or any less hysterical . In fact its straight out of the political canon of Eoghan Harris and Conor Cruise OBrien .
I await the next instalment of Mr McGuinness personal crisis with much interest .
'The senior Sinn Fein figure had launched an attack on ''dissident'' journalists.'
What attack? What is this nonsense?
The bit were deputy first minister McGuinness announced -'We still have dissident journalists.''
Indicating that everyone knew who he was talking about, Marty opined that such scribes were writing in a way which is ''giving succour to these people.''
Mr McGuinness is claiming that certain journalists are in league with those insurgents who ambushed the foreign troops at their Antrim base .
did you miss that bit or just not regard it as an attack on journalists the minister doesnt like ?
Sunday Tribune journalist Suzanne Breen has been threatened with prosecution under the British Terrorism Act 2000 over her refusal to hand over records relating to her interview with a member of the Real IRA . The Sunday Tribune is standing behind the journalist's refusal to comply with the demand to reveal details of her sources of information.
The PSNI want to ask Breen about the Real IRA’s claim of responsibility for the killing of two soldiers at Massereene army barracks in March and an interview with a senior Real IRA representative in which the group admitted killing Provisional IRA informer Denis Donaldson and threatened to execute more soldiers and police.
In pursuit of their case against Ms Breen , PSNI representatives are asking for in camera sessions with a judge from which the journalist and her legal team will be excluded.
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2009/may/03/we-will-rigor...-to-/
There have been no words of condemnation from the provos to this harrassment . An Phoblacht has recently referred to “ bilious Breen’s black propaganda” , which the former republican paper bizarrely sees as being directed against the provisional sinn fein group .
RTE reports today :
"A judge in Belfast has said he is minded to grant a police order compelling a journalist to hand over information linked to recent articles about the Real IRA."
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0512/breens.html
A Socialist Democracy article by JM Thorne makes the connection between the Deputy First Minister's remarks and the threat to imprison Suzanne Breen .
"In a political environment where a Sinn Fein leader is standing shoulder to shoulder with the chief constable, denouncing republicans as traitors and vowing to support whatever is required to defeat them, is it such a surprise that an off message journalist should find herself in court facing a possible prison sentence of five years. "
http://www.socialistdemocracy.org/RecentArticles/Recent....html
I see she won another victory for the dissident journalists of this country. Good for her!
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