The Gazette 1985

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INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND
GAZETTE
Vol. No. 79 No. 4 May 1985
In this issue . . .
Comment 123
Crossword 135
I.B.A. Seminar 137
Minutes of Half Yearly Meeting 139
How E.E.C. Law Affects the Practitioner
Education Note 151
Comment . . .
Executive Editor:
Editorial Board:
Advertising:
Printing:
Mary Buckley
William Earley, Chairman
John F. Buckley
Gary Byrne
Geraldine Clarke
Charles R. M. Meredith
Michael V. O'Mahony
Maxwell Sweeney
Liam O hOisin, Telephone 305236
Turner's Printing Co. Ltd., Longford
The views expressed in this publication, save where other-
wise indicated, are the views of the contributors and not
necessarily the views of the Council of the Society.
The appearance of an advertisement in this publication
does not necessarily indicate approval by the Society for
the product or service advertised.
Published at Blackhall Place, Dublin 7.
. . . All the News . . . .?
RECENTLY the Irish Independent (to its credit) gave
prominence in its letters column to a letter from a
victim of a "joy riding" car theft which made two
points:—
the first, that two of those charged with the crime,
when convicted by a jury, had received heavy
sentences;
the second, that no report of the case or the verdict
had appeared in any of the Dublin-based National
newspapers.
This letter highlighted a matter of growing concern to
many connected with the administration of justice in
Ireland, namely the decline in the volume of reports of
court cases carried in the National newspapers. The
public are entitled to be kept informed as to the manner in
which justice is being administered in our courts —
particularly the criminal courts. In the absence of day to
day reporting of the ordinary business of the courts it is
too easy to base unjustified criticism of the administration
of justice system on the small sample of cases which are
brought to the notice of the public.
It may be a natural temptation to an editorial
staff, faced with considerable pressure on space, to
choose the sensational, the bizzare, the out of the
ordinary. While no one would deny that the appetite of
the public for "news" is whetted by the reporting of this
type of case, the question must be raised whether a free
and responsible press does not owe a duty to its readers to
report the 'usual' as well as the unusual.
In this respect our Provincial papers still provide a
much more satisfactory level of reportage of the ordinary
court proceedings, of the District Courts in particular.
There has been a considerable decline in the number of
reports of District Court cases published in even the
Dublin evening newspapers over the years. The complaint
is frequently made that only the plaintiffs or the
prosecution's case is covered, and there is a vestige of
truth in this; but more significant is the absence of day-to-
day reporting of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
cases in which the machinery of justice is seen to operate
satisfactorily.
The editorial staff of our National newspapers may not
consider it "news" that there is a high percentage of
convictions in criminal cases in this jurisdiction but it is a
fact which their readers are entitled to know when they
are presented, as they regularly are, with adverse
comments on our police and court system.
"Dog Bites Man" must be seen to be "news" in such an
important area. •
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