Call for greater trust between State and media

TRANSPARENCY and trust proved the key themes at a conference yesterday which focused on the way forward for the island of Ireland.

Key speakers who addressed the Rotary Club International conference were Anthony Dinan, group managing director of the event’s main sponsors, Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH); Hugh Orde, PSNI chief constable and acclaimed BBC journalist Fergal Keane.

Mr Dinan told an audience of nearly 700 at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork that greater transparency in awarding licenses to media firms was needed. He also said there was a need for greater trust between the State and the media.

“Fragmentation is one of the challenges facing media. Another is the State award of licences. Today, it’s radio. Not so far down the road, it will be regional and local TV. Going back to that key word, ‘trust,’ I would hope that the future will deliver greater trust between the State and the commercial sector in this area. The systems by which licences are awarded should be more and more transparent. So that fairness is apparent. Once fairness is apparent, trust builds up,” Mr Dinan said.

He said he believed TCH was fortunate to be family-owned and a private limited company.

“Unlike public limited companies (PLCs) we can take long-term decisions and can play a better and more constructive role in communities served by our products. PLCs constantly have to maximise their bottom line and create shareholder value on a daily basis. The welfare of employees becomes secondary to their foremost profit pursuit. I believe many PLCs are forced to take action that, in the long-term, harms them and eventually distances them from their constituent parts — employees, suppliers, customers and even shareholders,” Mr Dinan said.

The group managing director of TCH — which controls 18 titles such as The Irish Examiner and Evening Echo — referred to great technological advances in the media.

“All I’m saying is that the minute any industry decides it’s the bee’s knees and the cat’s pyjamas, the context turns inside out and upside down,” Mr Dinan said. He added that the Celtic Tiger had inflated egos and post-tiger years will test how much we really believe in ourselves.

Mr Dinan said that in the case of TCH the company had belief in itself, in what it does, and what it stands for.

“That makes us look forward to the coming years with great optimism,” he added.