Brian Harvey had his press card refused and found little recourse press freedom


The powerful who hold all the cards


E


ver had your press card or pass refused? That happened to this Dublin-based NUJ member who tried to


attend a spaceflight conference recently – as well as to France’s most prominent spaceflight writer, Christian Lardier. For space journalists, the main event of the year is the Congress of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). These are huge occasions, attended by up to 10,000 people: astronauts, engineers, scientists, administrators and exhibitors. They are the best single annual event worldwide to get news, information, interviews and photos. Press – normally a hundred or so – are admitted on presentation of a professional journalist’s card, the NUJ’s or equivalent. For the 2024 congress in Milan, Italy, the IAF said ‘no’ to this writer, who had been attending since 1999 and to Lardier since 1974. On learning about the Irish case, the space community objected, urging reconsideration: space agencies (NASA), scientific bodies (the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), political parties, magazines (Le Scienze, Quest, Astronomy and Space, Orbit, CapCom, Kosmonavtika and SpaceNews), podcasters, universities (including New York) and the IAF’s 1951 founder, the British Interplanetary Society. NUJ Ireland repeatedly urged a reversal. The executive director of the IAF was confronted face to face at the annual convention of the worldwide association of astronauts in Noordwijk,


Netherlands. The IAF was repeatedly asked for the basis of refusal, but no explanation was ever given. So what was really going on? My


article in The Journalist (‘The mysterious secrecy around a mission to Mars’, December/January 2024) questioned why the European Space Agency (ESA) cancelled its 2022 flagship mission with Russia to explore Mars with a British- made rover, the Rosalind Franklin. ESA stonewalled enquiries to the point that the article called it ‘secretive’. But what has the ESA got to do with this? Research by German space writer and publisher Jacqueline Myrrhe identified that the IAF executive director, Christian Feichtinger, was and is simultaneously a senior official in ESA, also in Paris, seconded to the IAF. In effect, a senior official in one governmental body (ESA) decided press admission to an entirely unconnected, non- governmental one (IAF). Did the ESA have an axe to grind with critical journalists? Payback time? In Ireland’s parliament, the


government minister responsible for Ireland’s ESA membership, Peter Burke, was asked: whether it was appropriate that the ESA determine press admission to the events of another organisation (IAF); why admission was refused; how that decision respected press freedom; whether political bias was applied; and if should the ESA secondment be withdrawn. For journalists everywhere, the wider


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A refusal to admit journalists might seem trivial. But it is on such incidents that press freedom is built – or undermined


question is: what can be done about the refusal of accreditation? The NUJ in Ireland says there is ‘no automatic entitlement to press accreditation to a conference organised by a private organisation’. Many organisations have tightened up on accreditation and require proof of commissions. At least one journalist approved by the IAF was ‘encouraged’ to ‘commit to display’ the event’s hashtags, banners and logos, including those of its commercial sponsors, in his reports. This implied that journalists should promote rather than report on the event. Compared to the killing of reporters


in war zones, the refusal to let journalists into to an event, even the most important one in their professional calendar, might seem trivial. However, it is on countless incidents like this that press freedom is built – or undermined. The IAF is subject to European conventions on press freedom, both those arising from the Council of Europe (to which Britain belongs) and the European Union. The problem is their enforceability. The issue of the Irish and French journalists was taken up by Dublin MEP Regina Doherty, who made a formal communication to the new commissioner for democracy, justice and the rule of law, whose brief includes ‘media freedom’ and ‘protecting journalists’. The non-


governmental side is weak: although there is a European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, it was uninterested in this issue. The topic of press cards and


credentials is a distinct field in journalism studies. The general view is that some form of professional accreditation is desirable. Most European countries have such systems in place but there seems to be little recourse when powerful institutions deny them. European countries have rightly been vocal on press restrictions in other countries. What about here?


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