Health chiefs need to realise journalists asking hard questions can only be good for the country
GOOD journalists will spend most of their working lives asking questions. Some of these questions will lead to news stories, most will not. But the information gathered along the way helps build up a valuable understanding of a situation, its background and what might happen next.
Throughout the past year our leaders have faced endless questions over their handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequences their decisions have on our everyday lives.
News organisations in Ireland have reported the public health advice at length, exposed conspiracy theories and highlighted hypocrisies.
But there is a very thin line being walked between faithfully reporting the official messages and allowing those who make such massive decisions to become demi-gods.
It is easy to see why the ‘green jersey’ is important at a time of national crisis. We were never ‘all in it together’ but with so much death and despair, the need to create a sense of solidarity was real.
However, some in positions of power seem to believe that asking hard questions or adopting critical thinking to a scenario can be harmful to the national effort. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just look at how Brexit was reported by many UK media outlets.
Last year, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) expressed concern that the pandemic was being used by some as “an excuse to muzzle the press”.
“Embarrassing questions or demands for accountability sometimes result in fines, police investigations and the expulsion of foreign correspondents,” Stefan Schennach, general rapporteur on media freedom, said.
Thankfully we have no such restrictions in this country but a strange thing did happen at the bi-weekly press briefing of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) on Monday evening.
After our health chiefs took their seats in the press centre at the Health Department, but before the live broadcast began, a press officer told journalists not to ask questions unrelated to Covid-19.
That might not seem like a big deal but actually it is. It has long been accepted by politicians and public figures that journalists are entitled to ask off-topic questions at such briefings, particularly on the ‘news of the day’.
It is not a quantum leap to assume this ‘ban’ on difficult questions was a response to the Irish Independent using chief medical officer Tony Holohan’s appearance at last week’s press conference to ask about the CervicalCheck scandal.
A day after the country saw Lynsey Bennett crying on the steps of the Four Courts, the man in charge of strategic leadership of our health services declined to apologise for her situation but did express “huge regret”. It was a reasonable question asked in a firm but polite manner.
Ms Bennett has expressed disappointment that nobody has accepted liability for the missed opportunities in her case. “The magic words seem to be ‘deep regret’ and I find it kind of funny, because growing up for me ‘sorry’ was the word you were supposed to say and explain why you’re saying sorry,” she said.
The media can’t take credit for bringing the CervicalCheck story to light. That was down to one woman – Vicky Phelan. But journalism does have a duty to take up the baton and act as a voice for the underdog. We have the privilege of getting into close quarters with powerful people who are mostly out of reach for ordinary citizens.
To not ask Mr Holohan about Ms Bennett’s case would be a dereliction of the often-quoted principle that journalists should “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”.
There was one other public example of officials using the pandemic to try to gag journalists last August when a press officer tried to shut down reporters asking Health Minister Stephen Donnelly about ‘Golfgate’.
But behind the scenes, attempts have been made to reduce transparency and protect the messaging too. In the early Covid days, the Government tried to limit press conferences to just a tiny number of news organisations, using social distancing as an excuse. This was fiercely resisted and an arrangement was reached.
At another point, national media organisations threatened to boycott a Garda briefing after a small number of outlets were initially handpicked for an invitation.
The Health Department says it sought to restrict the lines of questioning on Monday as members of the public watch Nphet briefings to get “direct access to Covid-19 information from public health officials”.
“Members of the media are of course welcome to ask non-Covid-19 queries once the public broadcast of the briefing has ended, or submit their queries to the department’s press office,” a spokesperson said. But that’s not how it works. Journalists must be allowed to chase stories that will challenge, provoke and hold power to account in public and in the public interest.
Nobody who can influence our lives as dramatically as those at the top of the Health Department can expect to operate in a controlled environment, and every now and then show up for softball interviews on The Late Late Show.
And when this is over, they should be prepared for heavy questioning on why the health service was such a mess in the first place.
Because if journalists stop asking questions, we will cease to exist and who would that benefit?
Journalism has a duty to take up the baton for the underdog