NEWS WEBSITE THE Ditch has described a complaint to a public office watchdog by a Fianna Fáil senator as a “cynical” attempt at “silencing journalism”. 

It claimed it is another example of the “illiberal attacks on independent media” by the Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin. 

One of the party’s senators, Malcolm Byrne, has written to the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) regarding the roughly €1 million euro in funding for the website by Web Summit, which is led by Paddy Cosgrave.

Byrne has alleged to Sipo that the website is a “political platform that comes within the definition of a ‘third party’ under the Electoral Acts”, and that funding of The Ditch by Web Summit is “far in excess of those permitted under the Acts”.

It follows criticism of the website by Martin in the Dáil when he accused the site of presenting stories in a “selective and distorted way” and questioned where alleged money for paid ads was coming from. 

The funding from Web Summit was confirmed by the website’s editor Eoghan McNeill in an interview with RTÉ’s This Week programme earlier this month.

While Sipo has oversight over the Electoral Act, it is not clear if it has remit to address the funding received by The Ditch. 

In a statement by the website last night, it pointed to its membership of the Press Council of Ireland as an example of its legitimacy as a media organisation. 

“If Malcolm Byrne thinks the council is in the business of welcoming political organisations as members, he should take it up with them,” the statement said. 

“We invite Byrne to reflect on two things. Whether there’s a political ideology whose adherents seek to weaponise arms of the State to stamp out reporting they don’t like and whether he thinks his cynical complaint concerning The Ditch to Sipo will be in any way effective at silencing journalism he and his party consider damaging.”

The website added that Byrne is “allowing himself to be used as a conduit” his party leader Martin, alleging the Tánaiste is conducting “illiberal attacks on independent media”. 

The Ditch has come to the fore in recent times due to its investigative reporting on planning issues, which the website has said has prompted the resignations of two ministers of state and the deputy chairperson of An Bord Pleanála. 

Its statement described itself as a “left news organisation” which maintains property and land holdings are “material signifiers of power”.

The website said its reporting also brought about the “unedifying spectacle of Byrne’s party colleague, Niall Collins, refusing to answer Dáil questions about his part in the sale of public land to his wife”.

“Rather than dispute the facts of The Ditch’s reporting some tried to suppress these facts,” it said.