Travellers criticise DPP’s refusal to charge columnist Brenda Power

Travellers’ rights campaigners say they fear the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions not to press charges against writer Brenda Power for incitement to hatred gives the media free reign to publish racist comment.

Pavee Point and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, both of which made formal complaints to the gardaí about an article Ms Power wrote in the Irish Daily Mail last year, said they hoped the Press Ombudsman, to whom they also complained, would take a different view from the DPP.

Ms Power said the complaints were “entirely pointless and futile” and the DPP’s decision not to prosecute her made an important statement about “the necessity of a free press and the value of open, fearless, and unimpeded debate”.