Free press has vital role in democracy

I agree with Caitríona McClean’s praise for the Irish Examiner for ‘restoring her faith in the written media’ by criticising Taoiseach Kenny about ‘what might well be coercion’ by the ECB in relation to the bailout (Letters, Sept 1).

The role of the free press is, as she says, to tell us ‘what is really going on in this country’ and to hold the powerful to account. We should remember why we were in the position, in which people in high places were able to convince our representatives that we needed the bailout and indeed the bank guarantee, in the first place. A good part of the cause of the bankrupting of the country was that the people in general did not know what was really going on during the Celtic Tiger era.

In addition, those in powerful positions were not adequately held to account. It might be a very dear lesson but if we have learned the vital role of a free media in a democracy, at a time when that topic is under discussion for other reasons, at least that is progress.