McDonald doubles down on Sinn Féin’s ‘right to sue’ journalists
SINN Féin politicians are increasingly using defamation laws to sue journalists instead of taking their concerns about coverage to the Press Ombudsman.
Party president Mary Lou McDonald yesterday defended the right of her colleagues to take lawsuits after the party’s Dublin Bay South TD, Chris Andrews, lodged defamation proceedings in the High Court against the Irish Times and its political correspondent, Harry McGee, over an article he wrote about Sinn Féin’s response to the Hamas massacre of Israeli citizens on October 7.
Concerns over the main opposition party’s litigious nature come as the independent press regulator confirmed that no Sinn Féin politician has submitted a complaint in the past six years.
And yesterday, Ms McDonald defended her party colleague’s right to sue.
She said: ‘When a line is crossed, as to when something is said or published that crosses a particular line, people have the right to use the mechanisms available to them to vindicate their name.’
A Press Ombudsman spokeswoman this weekend confirmed the last Sinn Féin politician to submit a complaint to the regulator was then-president Gerry Adams in 2017.
Prior to that, however, members of the party – and the party itself – were among the more regular complainants from political circles.
Mr Adams made three complaints in 2014. In 2016, Councillor Toireasa Ferris, Lynn Boylan MEP and the party itself made a complaint. The next year was the last of Mr Adams’s four complaints since the office was set up in 2009.
The Irish Times article included social media comments made by Mr Andrews in response to a tweet from the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described Mr Andrews’s legal action as ‘frightening’.
‘To see a member in this house, not just suing a major newspaper but also personally suing a journalist, is only designed to do one thing,’ the Taoiseach said.
‘It is designed to make journalists afraid. It is designed to make them think twice about what they write and that is wrong.’
Mr Varadkar acknowledged people are ‘entitled to sue the media if they so wish’, but added: ‘They don’t have to.’ Instead, he said, the ‘first step’ should be to make a complaint to the Press Council.
Press Ombudsman Susan McKay thanked the Taoiseach for his support against the ‘intimidating practice’ of suing journalists.
She said: ‘The Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman deplores the practice of powerful public figures suing individual journalists in response to publicinterest news reporting.
‘We welcome the Taoiseach’s and the NUJ’s support for journalists who are subject to this intimidating practice.
‘My role as Press Ombudsman is to consider complaints in terms of the Press Council’s Code of Practice, a document which strongly supports the rights of the individual to defend their good name. The service my office provides is free and open to everyone and we respond swiftly to all complaints we receive.
‘The freedom of the press is at the heart of our democracy. A defamation case, even if not upheld, will almost certainly be financially ruinous for an individual reporter and will cause severe financial problems for a newspaper, potentially impacting on its ability to invest in quality journalism.’
The Press Ombudsman was set up by the newspaper industry in advance of the 2009 Defamation Act. It was designed to provide a dispute resolution process and reduce the need for defamation lawsuits.
Four Sinn Féin politicians – including Ms McDonald and her predecessor Mr Adams – are currently suing media organisations including RTÉ and the BBC, which are not covered under the remit of the Press Ombudsman.