Honour the journalists who risk their lives
THE definition of news as something that ‘somebody somewhere wants to suppress’ is one that leaps to mind when you consider the sinister and shocking murder of a brave investigative journalist in Malta on Monday.
Daphne Caruana Galizia was a popular and fearless woman who exposed political corruption in her homeland both in the print media and via her ‘Running Commentary’ blog. One thinks immediately of Veronica Guerin’s untimely death at the hands of Irish criminals. The two women died while earnestly seeking, and reporting, the truth about corrupt and criminal factions within their societies.
The impact of Ms Galizia’s probing journalism can be gauged by the vehemence of the reaction to her work from government and opposition politicians alike in Malta, and by the long lines of detractors availing of her country’s libel laws in a sustained attempt to intimidate her into silence. Sadly, libel laws don’t just protect the innocent.
To her eternal credit she refused to capitulate to either legalistic gagging tactics or the more frightening threats from people who, in the end, believed the only way to escape the harsh light of truth was to kill her.
I think we often take such courageous people for granted: the Daphne Galizias and Veronica Guerins of this world, who hold the powerful, the murderous, and the corrupt to account on our behalf, in the interests of decency, justice, and true democracy, and also journalists assigned to war zones who have fallen on the battlefield almost unnoticed while risking their lives to provide us with information, as distinct from rumour or carefully packaged spin from the warring factions.
News reports nowadays are accessible to us at the swipe of an iPad or by looking up Facebook, most of it costing us nothing. It’s good to remember, and honour, the special breed of men and women who bring us that news, especially people like the wonderful Daphne Caruana Galizia. RIP. JOHN FITZGERALD, Callan, Co. Kilkenny.
Tracker scandal
HOW bizarre that the Financial Regulator and the Central Bank say they have no powers to force the banks to compensate and put right the appalling behaviour that the banks inflicted upon their customers by removing them from tracker mortgages.
The situation, then, is one of a voluntary scheme by the banks, meaning they can drag their feet for as long as they see fit. What needs investigating is the timing of the introduction in 2013 of certain powers to compensate customers. Most of the removal of tracker mortgages was before 2013. Are we to believe, then, that the timing of these powers, after the event, was coincidental.
Surely the ‘big boys and girls’ at the top and their ‘banking friends’ must have known something was amiss well before 2013.
The fact that all the big players took their customers off the tracker mortgages smacks of a cartel situation. Why did they all follow suit? Did they have or seek legal advice? How bizarre.
The Government, or should I say the do-nothing Government, sits on its hands and shrugs its shoulders, happy to flit about the country for photo shoots, fooling us with their spin. From my observations over the years with all the scandals that rear up on a regular basis, I am sad to say that there is no accountability, nobody is held responsible, and it usually results in someone riding off into the sunset with a big lump sum and a massive pension.
The lives of thousands of people have been affected, so is the law being upheld here? The Establishment just shrugs its shoulders – shame on them. DAVID J COLEY, Ennis, Co. Clare.
We need real leaders
IS IT possible in this day and age for us, the ‘plebs’, to demand a better standard of governance? Do we have to put up with the same old thing, week in, week out? Isn’t it amazing how the multitudes are governed by the few, and now our ‘breath of fresh air’ Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is continuing in that fine old tradition, started in the early Eighties by another party, of ‘spin’ and ‘advisers’ and ‘photo shoots’, when what we need is the opposite – a bit of truth and realism.
What we don’t need to know, is the colour of our leader’s socks, and we certainly don’t need his phoney arranged photo shoots.
Is it possible to get an ‘imageless’ leader who does some sterling work behind the scenes, that we the ‘plebs’ will never be told about in our lifetime?
Don’t answer that, as my stitches are still new, and not due out for another week. HOLLY BARRETT, Mallow, Co. Cork.
Find housing solutions
IT’S time to look to other countries for solutions to our housing crisis. America and the UK have economy apartments to cater for couples and single people.
There is a Mexican company that builds eco-friendly small housing units with one to three bedrooms, and which have roof gardens and garage spaces, priced from €13,600 to €65,000.
Solutions like this are quick, affordable and effective. Time for our Government to get busy with realistic, fast solutions.
A. STOKES, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10.