I was listening to the latest episode of The Irish Passport podcast with Naomi O'Leary and Tim Mc Inerney titled "How the wealthy and powerful muzzle reporting in Ireland". They discuss the report that O'Leary wrote for the International Press Institute detailing the costs of defamation lawsuits and the chilling effect that it can have on reporting.
The report is well worth reading. There are some shocking stories about the threats issued to journalists and their sources. It also goes through the some of the costs involved and how it can cripple some smaller media organisations.
Ireland has been warned about this before. It is past time that the law needs to be updated. Knowingly publishing lies should be punished but those same laws should not be used to hide the truth.
