6 FUTURE OF MEDIA COMMISSION Nice words can’t mask flaws By Michael Foley


Was there anyone in the media industry who wholeheartedly welcomed the much anticipated Future of Media Commission, announced by the minister responsible for the media, Catherine Martin, recently? The NUJ’s statement was headed, ‘NUJ slams Media Commission’, while the representative body for national newspapers, NewsBrands Ireland, gave a guarded welcome before calling for the terms of reference to be rewritten and describing the commission as a ‘lost opportunity’. Both bodies decried the lack of representation. Other sectors, including media education and


regional newspapers, were also disappointed with a commission that does not include any journalist representatives, media managers or even those involved in serious research into media in Ireland. Weeks after the initial announcement the Minister added Siobhan Holliman to the Commission. Though she was not nominated by the NUJ, she is, of course, co-chair of the Irish Executive Council and brings a wealth of experience of the regional newspaper sector, where she is deputy editor of the Tuam Herald. The statements announcing the commission from


the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, and the Minister responsible for the media, the first person to hold such a brief, Catherine Martin, said the usual nice things about the role of the media, but there was a lack of urgency about the existential crisis the media is going through.


This Commission on the Future of the Media was


promised in the Programme for Government. The last government had already announced the establishment of the Future of Public Service Broadcasting Commission, to be chaired by the former head of DCU, Professor MacCraith. That Commission has now morphed into the new Future of the Media Commission, which will “consider the future of print, broadcast, and online media in a platform agnostic fashion”, whatever that means. Professor MacCraith remains chair. Politicians and political parties had been lobbied by the NUJ and the employers to appoint a full minister responsible for media and in the case of the NUJ for a review or inquiry into the media. The result was media got tagged onto Minister Martin’s long list of responsibilities, and so was born the first media minister at the cabinet table. However, the new commission appears to be the


result of a rushed job to get something, anything, out, by taking the terms of reference of the original public service broadcast commission, and adding a few broad mentions of the rest of the media. Civil servants might have a handle on broadcasting, but the press and online media world is something else. There are stories that people were being contacted by civil servants and being asked detailed


Michael Foley


questions about the media, presumably to help frame the terms of reference of the commission. Oddly, those contacted, presumably because of their expertise, were not appointed to the commission. But rather than going through the terms of


reference and the goals, it might be more fruitful to look at what has not been included. There is no mention of employment, nor is the impact of social media, search engines and platforms that aggregate content on news media specifically mentioned. There is nothing about the proliferation of misinformation and the role of Google and Facebook on hoovering up advertising. Can the commission discuss and recommend means to help public interest journalism in its broadest sense, financially, similarly to the Cairncross Review recommended in Britain last year? What about media regulation, will that remain as it is now?


The programme for government also promised


legislation that will “ensure support for local community radio stations and independent national and regional broadcasters in the important work they do.” Will that wait until the commission reports? There is also the promise of another commission, a Media Commission, within the context of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, which was published by the outgoing government. That bill will establish a super Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to regulate not only broadcasting but, finally, online media. Again, what will the role of the Commission on the Future of Media be in relation to that legislation? And finally, as they say on TV news, the programme


for government also promised to ‘review and reform defamation laws.’ That review is actually a legal requirement under the 2009 Defamation Act, and is already five years late.


Michael Foley is vice chair of the NUJ’s Ethics Council where he represents the Republic of Ireland.


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