Union: ‘a black day for journalism’

THE National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has described the publication in Sunday newspapers of false reports that Liam Lawlor died in the company of a prostitute as “a black day for journalism”.

NUJ Irish secretary Seamus Dooley said there was insufficient evidence to justify the “lurid” headlines used and too many doubts about the story to allow it to run.

“It should never have appeared,” he said.

Mr Dooley welcomed the apology from Sunday Independent managing editor, Michael Denieffe, but said he was less impressed by the response of the paper’s editor, Aengus Fanning, and described a statement by the Observer newspaper on the controversy as “extremely arrogant”.

“I think it’s important that when the media get it badly wrong that they say sorry and, on this occasion, they got it really, badly wrong. This was a black day for journalism,” said Mr Dooley.

He said the reports reflected the fierce competition within the Sunday newspaper market which caused all normal editorial values to be “thrown out the window”.

“Most journalists that I know, including the vast number of journalists in

Independent House, were shocked at the treatment of this story. This is commercial exploitation of the death of a prominent person.

“This is commercial values dictating rather than editorial values. This is the commercialisation of news which is particularly intense in the Sunday market,” he said.

Mr Dooley said he had no difficulty if the controversy led to renewed calls for the setting up of a press council, so long as it operated on the basis of co-regulation, with industry funding combined with an independent ombudsman.

He pointed out, however, that a press council could only deal with complaints after publication and would have been able to do little for Mr Lawlor’s widow and her family.

He also said the controversy would be used by people to say the media could not be trusted to police themselves.