Fergus Finlay: The crisis in RTÉ has deflected attention from another battle in our democracy

Throughout my life I’ve been able to rely on RTÉ to tell the truth when it matters, to ask hard questions, to lampoon politicians mercilessly when it’s necessary, and to hold a variety of institutions’ feet to the fire in our interest. So have all of us.

I fear for its future because of what it has done to itself. How do you trash and destroy the reputation of a good company in just a couple of weeks like that? How do you put it in a position where it has to be rebuilt from the ground up?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more craven performance in my life than the one put on by those highly paid professional managers. Judging by their own account they were too craven to challenge their own boss. They were certainly too craven to acknowledge the rotten culture they described as being largely their own creation, a culture personified by slush funds—while hard-working people in RTÉ were struggling to keep the show on the road.

'Free' speech

But while the crisis of RTÉ has occupied the front pages over the past few weeks, there’s another battle going on. And it too is being characterised by some of its proponents as a battle for democratic rights.

I admit I hadn’t been paying it much attention, to my evident shame, until I was alerted to it by a tweet. A long and dramatic tweet, which referred to an organisation aimed at curtailing free speech and suppressing honestly-held viewpoints. This seemingly mad organisation apparently “proposes that everyone’s free expression be criminalised (with penalties of imprisonment) on the basis of the subjective feelings of others”.

When I read the tweet I immediately began searching for the organisation the tweeter is alerting us to. I haven’t found it yet, though I’m not implying that the tweeter made it up. 

I am, however, determined to find this organisation. Because I want to join it.

The tweet was from Senator Rónán Mullen. “There is an organisation,” he said, “now lobbying for the ‘Hate Bill’ to be enacted and enforced as a matter of priority”. In his long tweet he went on to say: “This is a fanaticism which should not be entertained. It is an attempt to suppress honestly-held viewpoints. The only way to respond to this dangerous intolerance is to double down on the lobbying of public representatives about the dangers in this ‘Hate Speech’ Bill.” 

I’ve only quoted a short extract. But it’s the sort of stuff that would alarm any freedom-loving democrat, and I’m one of them. Mind you, I haven’t yet found a “Hate Bill” or even a “Hate Speech” Bill.

Proposed legislation

But I have found a proposed piece of legislation that aims to create two criminal offences. First of all, it proposes to make it an offence to condone, deny, or grossly trivialise genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or crimes against peace. Secondly, it seeks to strengthen the existing law and prevent people being incited to hatred or violence against other people who need some additional protection by the law.

At first glance it occurred to me that that, surely, can’t be what Mullen was objecting to. We’re all against hatred, right? None of us wants to see people deliberately fomenting hatred against others, do we? When you look at the bill, it will be an offence to disseminate material, or to behave in a public place, with the intent of inciting violence or hatred, or by being reckless as to whether violence or hatred is caused. Against people who can be made more vulnerable by hate.

But apparently, according to Mullen, it depends on what you mean by hatred. In his view there are different kinds of hatred. Without wishing to put words in his mouth there must be mild hatred, moderate hatred and extreme hatred.

He has another problem. The proposed legislation says that it would be a crime to incite violence or hatred against a person on the grounds of their gender, and defines gender as “the gender of a person or the gender which a person expresses as the person’s preferred gender or with which the person identifies and includes transgender and a gender other than those of male and female”.

It's cumbersome, I grant you, and takes a minute or two to get your head around. Not according to Mullen. 

He sees it as “a radical new definition of ‘gender’ which is wide open for exploitation by activists”. 

More danger here, more likely to see free speech suppressed. Not quite sure why, but if you follow Mullen on Twitter, you’ll see his mounting anxiety about what he has started calling “draconian legislation”.

Senator Mullen is not alone of course. I found myself listening to an interview by one of his fellow senators, Michael McDowell, the other day. It almost made me sad. McDowell, a former Attorney General, a former minister for justice, the man who invented the phrase “citizenship tourism” to persuade us to change our citizenship laws, was intoning that this proposed new legislation created an entirely new and appalling vista.

Speaking on The Hard Shoulder on Newstalk he told a clearly surprised Anton Savage that under this legislation citizens would start arresting other citizens who were using hate speech on the street. “I mentioned this right to the minister,” he intoned, “and she never mentioned it in her reply”. “Very concerning,” he added.

I think the minister was being kind to him. Anyone who tried to argue that preventing hate speech is leading us towards public disorder, as McDowell is doing, is surely stretching his own credibility.

Look, this is one of those old-fashioned pile-ons. Every time even a mildly progressive legal change is proposed in Ireland, the same mix of people go to war. The floodgates will open, they tell us. There’ll be unintended consequences. It will have chilling effects. It’s draconian, unwarranted.

It’s all fabricated nonsense. I never know what the real motivation is behind these pile-ons. But I really hope the minister for justice doubles down now. We all know who needs better protection from the law, and it’s not comfortable middle-class senators.

There are people who live in fear every day in Ireland. They suffer bullying, hatred, discrimination and violence. Every day. Because they are gay. Because they are Travellers. Because they have a disability. Because of their skin colour. Because they are different. 

And legislation whose only purpose is to offer them an added measure of protection is supposed to be draconian and fearsome? Give me a very large break.

This article was originally published on July 4, 2023.