Geraldine Kennedy, the editor of the Irish Times, spoke to students at NUI Maynooth. She was a guest of the Political and Sociology Society. After a short lecture she took part in a Question and Answer session which revealed an interesting and personable lady. She also had some interesting things to say about the state of journalism today, and in particular about new journalism graduates, which I was once upon a time:
“I didn't want to be sent to any of those soft places - I wanted to be sent Mountjoy because I fancied the idea of meeting Catherine Nevin!”
That was the surprising admission of Geraldine Kennedy, the editor of the Irish Times, when asked if she expected to be sent to jail over the paper's refusal to identify the source of a leak from the Moriarity Tribunal.
Ms. Kennedy was addressing NUI Maynooths Politics and Sociology Society last Wedenesday, April 14, on the issue of press freedom.
In September 2006, she approved the publication of an article in The Irish Times giving confidential details of investigations being made into payments purported to have been made in 1993 to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
And she refused, when requested to by Tribunal, to provide details of the source of that.
She claimed that the documents had since been destroyed. Her refusal caused the Tribunal to seek High Court orders compelling her to provide details of the source.
The case eventually made it to the Surpreme Court where the Irish Times won their case.
“Press freedom is a right,” she told those assembled, although she made the point that many journalists mistakenly believe that it refers to them.
“It's not about them, it's about the public. The public has a right to press freedom. It is the public's right to know, and I make no apology of sticking to that,” she noted.
She spoke briefly about the conflicting roles of politicians and journalists, and how they and others attempt to “get their message out”, much to the detriment of the role of the media.
“We question everything and presume nothing,” she said, adding that the old definition of news being something that somebody somewhere doesn't want you to know remains a good one, she felt.
She spoke of the threat, which has now receded of tougher privacy laws, and admitted that this had been brought on by the excesses of the tabloid media.
“Many politcians or their families have have come a cropper as the hands of tabloid newspapers for prurient reasons in recent times,” she noted.
In a wide ranging discussion afterwards, she admitted that all of society “went along with the flow” when the economy was going well. “And we made decisions thinking it would last forever.
“If the houses weren't for sale, we wouldn't be writing about them,” she said by way of defending the property supplement.
When asked if the Irish Times had considered changing to a compact size she explained that “like all papers we considered it about it five or six years ago but decided not to do it because our readers would be resistant to it – but we haven't closed down the issue.
“We also felt it would change the character of the newspaper.
“The Irish Independent,” she noted, “now has a 60/40 split because many of their readers were resistant to it – so they have the worst of both worlds where they have to produce two newspaper a night.”
At one time the Irish Times did also consider a Sunday edition in the early 1990's. It did not proceed because it was thought it might challenge their Saturday edition.
Ms. Kennedy's own view was that there would have been room for a Sunday edition before the entry of the London Sunday Times into the market. But now she felt that the Sunday market was saturated.
She also recounted her role in the phone tapping scandal in the early 1980's (when the vast majority of her audience wasn't even born).
“It was unusual for me that rather than merely covering the story, I was now part of the story,” she said.
And she spoke of her entry into politics and her disappointment at her early exit after one term.
“I was very lucky to go back into journalism,” notwithstanding the 'decontamination period' she had to endure from writing about politics.
She noted how the coverage offered by newspapers has changed greatly in the past 15 years. Given the 24/7 news culture we now live, people look to newspaper for in-depth analysis of the news rather than necessarily the news itself, she explained.
She added that there is still further change ahead because there is still no viable business model for newspaper websites.
“You couldn't afford to run a newspaper online,” she said, but added that many newspapers were testing a variety of ways to make it pay.
When asked what she looks for in a young journalist, she noted: “I'd never say to anyone to stay away from journalism, although with the recession there aren't many jobs around at the moment.”
The journalism courses in various colleges now are turning out reporters who are competent, “but there's a sameness about them,” she noted. “They all want to be stars within three years!”
She noted that it was getting harder to find the “really talented people who may not have done a journalism course.
“I don't think that it's the only route,” she noted, suggesting that preliminary study in something like science or English might be just as useful.
In answer to a question to whether there was one thing she looked for in a young reporter, she said that she looked for somebody who had made an effort to be involved in their student newspaper, who had made an effort to get published and had good general knowledge and understanding of current affairs and the news of the day.
She also looked to see “what new perspective they could bring to the newsroom”.
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