Ireland's media silenced over MP's speech about Denis O'Brien

I cannot recall having previously started a blogpost by reporting a speech to the Irish parliament. But please stick with me on this.

Catherine Murphy, an Independent TD (MP), yesterday spoke about the relationship between Ireland’s leading media owner, Denis O’Brien, and the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), the former Anglo Irish Bank.

Here is a key passage from her speech (edited only to make it explicable to people outside Ireland who have not followed the details of a long-run saga):

“We are now aware... that the former CEO of IBRC made verbal agreements with Denis O’Brien to allow him to extend the terms of his already expired loans...

I understand that Mr O’Brien was enjoying a rate of approximately 1.25% when IBRC could, and arguably should, have been charging 7.5%.

Given that we are talking about outstanding sums of upwards of €500 million, the interest rate applied is not an insignificant issue for the public interest.

We also know that Denis O’Brien felt confident enough in his dealings with IBRC that he could write to Kieran Wallace, the special liquidator, and demand that the same favourable terms extended to him by way of a verbal agreement be continued.

We now have Kieran Wallace, who has been appointed by the government to conduct the IBRC review, actually joining with IBRC and Denis O’Brien in the high court to seek to injunct the information I have outlined from coming into the public domain. Surely that alone represents a conflict”.

Given that IBRC is state-owned, Murphy was suggesting that the Irish people have been subsidising O’Brien’s interest payments on massive loans for no clear reason.

Although I have no idea whether or not her claims are correct, they are protected by parliamentary privilege (as in Britain).

Her speech can be seen here on YouTube and can be accessed here on the Oireachtas website. But her remarks were not reported in Ireland because lawyers acting for O’Brien argued that the details were covered by a high court injunction obtained by O’Brien against the country’s main broadcaster, RTÉ, last week.

That injunction prevented RTÉ from broadcasting a report relating to O’Brien’s private banking affairs with IBRC. It was imposed despite RTÉ contending that press freedom, public interest and legitimate journalistic inquiry should be paramount.

But the extension of the terms of that injunction to cover a parliamentary speech has shocked the Irish media community, not to mention the public.

It had extraordinary effects. For example, RTÉ reporter Philip Boucher Hayes tweeted yesterday afternoon that the Drivetime show was about to play Murphy’s speech, but the piece was not broadcast and his tweet was later deleted.

RTÉ news bulletins mentioned that Murphy had spoken but didn’t quote what she had said or play clips. Online reports quoting Murphy were removed, stating only that Murphy had spoken about O’Brien. Similarly, the Irish Times’s report was silent on what Murphy said but it did provide a link to her speech on the Oireachtas site. (Evidently - hat tip: Padraig Reidy - the Irish Times did initially report her words).

The report on the matter by Ireland’s best-selling daily newspaper, the Irish Independent, said: “Mr O’Brien successfully stopped RTÉ from broadcasting the details which Ms Murphy raised in the Dáil”.

The Indo, as it is known in Ireland, is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), which is controlled by O’Brien. That company is far and away the largest newspaper owner in Ireland. It also publishes the Irish Daily Star, the Sunday Independent, the Sunday World, Dublin’s Evening Herald plus 14 regional titles and, north of the border, the Belfast Telegraph.

O’Brien is big in radio too through his Communicorp group which owns two major national stations, Newstalk and Today FM, plus three regional stations.

He is a billionaire regarded as Ireland’s richest man with widespread interests, including mobile phones, oil and aircraft leasing. For tax reasons, he lives in Malta.

In the late evening, the nightly discussion programme on TV3, Tonight with Vincent Browne, was presented (because Browne is on holiday) by Ger Colleran, editor of INM’s Irish Daily Star.

He read a statement from TV3’s management stating that there must be no discussion about Murphy’s comments following letters from O’Brien’s lawyers.

So there it is. The owner of the bulk of Ireland’s media outlets is using an injunction to prevent reports on his affairs appearing in the rest of the media he doesn’t control.

Clearly, there are questions to ask about the press freedom implications due to Ireland’s lack of media plurality and diversity.

Sources: YouTube/Irish Times/RTÉ/Irish Independent/Oireachtas/TV3