Should writers always speak their minds?

Do writers always speak their minds?

Is the press in Ireland as free as we would like to think? 

Kevin Myers will discuss some of the constraints on journalists, from so-called ‘political correctness’ to libel laws and the Press Ombudsman, along with the impact they have on a free press in Ireland – in a public interview organized by Irish PEN in collaboration with DIT School of Media. 

Kevin Myers has been a journalist for the past forty years, attracting controversy and standing on principle in myriad ways in that time.  He has been a newspaper columnist since 1980, and writes four columns a week.  He has reported on the wars in Northern Ireland, where he worked throughout the 1970s, Beirut and Bosnia, and has also reported from Japan, Africa and Central Europe.

Mr Myers was recently the subject of a press ombudsman complaint about an opinion piece on the subject of gay marriage.  The complaint was upheld - the ombudsman found that it breached principles regarding distinguishing fact from fiction and prejudice.  His writing on various subjects, ranging from immigration, privatisation, childrearing and gay rights consistently provoke thought, debate, and often outrage; Myers holds strongly that a journalist is entitled to his or her right to comment, despite “that they may be wrong”. 

Irish PEN is affiliated to PEN International, the worldwide association for writers, and is supported by Dublin City Council Arts Office. The aims of PEN are to promote literature, defend freedom of expression and promote co-operation among writers. PEN’s membership around the world numbers journalists, novelists, poets, essayists and playwrights, as well as those with an interest in writing and communication between writers.  PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee works on behalf of imprisoned, censored and persecuted writers around the globe:  “Because writers speak their minds”.

As Ireland’s oldest journalism school, for over fifty years the School of Media at DIT has provided innovative educational programmes, earning an international reputation for innovating new courses as media technologies, as well as the way we use media in society, evolve.

Interviewer Tom Clonan is a lecturer specialising in news journalism, public affairs and crisis management at DIT Aungier St.  He is a published author and has written for the Irish Times for the past 11 years, while also working in radio and television broadcasting.  He is a retired Army Officer and like Kevin Myers, has experience of conflict in Ireland, the Middle East and former Yugoslavia.  No stranger to controversy, Tom is regarded as one of Ireland’s foremost whistleblowers because of his experience of exposing crises in equality and the military in Ireland.  

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