While the journal is a breath of fresh air compared to rte and other media such as tv3 and independent newspapers. The controlling factor comes into it should one man (have shares) or even newspapers or radio stations have shareholders. Should they be truely free and not be a profit making machine. The freedom of the press relies on honesty and integrity and allowing an unbiased view to be entered into the public domain. For if the free press is to remain free very little influence by shareholders or other vested interest should be given, in order to remain free and essential to the public.

“The sheer existence of TheJournal.ie and the fact that readers can comment freely on stories without fear of repression or retaliation for expressing their own personal views are proof of rights that are all too often taken for granted in Ireland”. Well that’s a lie, comments get taken down all the time for absolutely nothing.

Lads go an live somewhere like Belarus or North Korea where human rights doesn’t even seem to be in their vocabulary, then come back an read this article again….you’ll be glad of a bit of RTE then I suspect lol

Here’s an ethical question. Should we be grateful when people act morally? Sinead O’Connor’s lyric “Thank you for not hurting me”, come to mind. Yes, we have good freedom of the press in Ireland. But have things swung so far into fascism already that we should be grateful for a human right, or would not our emotional energy be better spent feeling aggrieved that others don’t have have such a basic right?

Makes no difference anyway nobody is made accountable for anything in this country even with the press uncovering the crimes! Also the more world policing that happens and the more people are not allowed freedom of speech the more likely in the next 100 + years you will see a war break out between the people and the government armies of countries…if you push people to far then always be careful of the mob and sheer numbers. Mob always rules!

what a sickening load of crap. Ireland’s ‘press’ is a corrupt and disgusting as any other country.

A good straightforward point. He isnt going into an analysis of Ireland’s press, just pointing out that there is a direct correlation between press freedom and corruption and that internationally, Ireland’s press is regarded quite well.

You state “For the other almost six billion people on our planet, governments and non-state actors control the viewpoints that reach citizens and often brutally repress independent voices who aim to promote good governance, accountability and economic development.”
To me the first part applies to Ireland also but not the second part.
Our government and non-state actors actively control the viewpoints reaching the citizens and we have a pretence at balance where those who disagree are allowed air their views. Do a Chomsky style count of establishment versus non-establishment views over the next week in our media and come back to me with confirmation of our freedom and perhaps I will believe you.
There has been a relentless hate campaign waged against the poor, the unemployed and the public sector since the bust began and both state and non-state are complicit.
Yes we are allowed hear the opposite but the sheer volume of hate is so loud and unremitting that the opposition are drowned out.

The article could probably have been helped with this link http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/freedom-press-2012

This was an objective external analysis of Global press freedom. If you doubt the veracity of the findings, go live at the bottom of the list.

While the

I think the Irish press is the best in the world and most of it is based in our great city of Dublin. Up the Dubs.