Irish Examiner view: Media objectivity must always be protected

The notion of few gentle questions being asked of a party leader by other MPs from that party is a poor precept for any proper media platform to follow

Boris Johnson. Picture: Chris J Ratcliffe/PA

We rightly excoriate Russia and China for their unrelentingly tight control of media and communication. They counter with the accusation that western governments and their proxies (Murdoch, Facebook, the BBC, and what some people call old mainstream media) want to control the narrative and produce propaganda.

But democratic politicians and personalities often have more subtle ways of forming public opinion. They can, for example, appear on innumerable sympathetic TV programmes (such as Oprah’s) to get “their truth” across. 

Or they can chance their arm with a tough interviewer (Richard Nixon and David Frost) and most memorably in recent times, and disastrously for him, Britain’s Prince Andrew and the BBC’s Emily Maitlis.

British prime minister Boris Johnson has another wheeze, providing an interview to two of his own MPs on GB News, the TV station where Nigel Farage is star attraction. 

Granted, one of the interrogators — we use the word advisedly — was Philip Davies, the most rebellious MP currently in the British parliament, having voted against the Tory whip on more than 250 occasions. His colleague was Esther McVey, another Conservative MP, and a minister under the Theresa May premiership. She is the wife of Mr Davies.

Johnson provided some interesting insights: Yes, some of the lockdown measures were “inhumane”; no, it is impossible to rule out another instance; some of the comments about the restriction-busting parties in Downing Street were “a lot of nonsense” but he would have more to say about that “later” when the police had finished their job.

The Tory party may have been pleased with this opportunity for Johnson to speak uninterrupted by any proper scrutiny but the notion of a few gentle questions being asked of a party leader by other MPs from that party is a poor precept for any proper media platform to follow.

Not that we suggest GB News is a proper TV channel or that any Irish broadcasters or politicians would be tempted to follow this supine example. But with Channel 4, a service which is used here, slated for sale it’s worrying that the balance that protects media objectivity might be jeopardised.