Interpreting the Poisonous Silences in a Fractured Society

A woman clutches a dove of peace at a 1996 Belfast vigil. In Northern Ireland, hopes for peace and the realities of conflict shape daily journalism. Interpreting the poisonous silences in a fractured society JOHN O'FARRELL N NORTHERN IRELAND, to use "Ireland," is commonly used by Irish the internationally accepted name for nationalists or republicans who want to see I the place of which I write, it is generally the entire island consolidated into the Irish assumed that journalists take sides. The republic. "Ulster" is used by unionists or lace name you use spells out your alle- loyalists who favor the link with Britain. giance: "The North of Ireland," or just "Northern Ireland itself is favored by John O'Farrell: Divided People, Divided Press * British commentators and politicians, between the right wing of the Ulster while "The North" is the most commonly Unionist Party and Ian Paisley's Democra- used term in the Republic of Ireland. More tic Unionists. It is contemptuous of loyalist hard-line republicans call it "Occupied paramilitaries, but its real spleen is directed North-East Ireland," while loyalists recipro- at Irish nationalism in general and what it care by referring to the Republic of Ireland calls "Sinn FCinIIRAn in particular. It uses a ("The South" to northern nationalists) as house style that insists in calling the Repub- "Eire," a name officially dropped in 1949. lic "Eire,"and its taoiseach the "Irish prime Which province do you want minister," emphasizing the to live in? foreignness of its island We in Northern Ireland are JohnO'Farrell neighbor. The Irish News a divided people. If the press is managing editor of takes a nonviolent nationalist reflects the society it reports, viewpoint; it is critical of Fornigh magazine in how do these division-ul- IRA violence but tends to tural,cal, evensocial, ethnic-manifestreligious, politi- Belfast. blame the unionists and the L1British for the woes of "The themselves in reporting? Does North." The Telegraph is an a sectarian society necessarily have to have a evening paper that takes a liberal unionist sectarian press? If everyone is biased, is there viewpoint but allows regular opinion pieces an ideological center that can act as a ful- from all political viewpoints, from loyalist crum for a definition of fairness? Alternately, to republican. how far can bias go? Is it limited by the real- . Northern Ireland is unusually well served ization that the discrediting and destruction by a number of local weekly newspapers of an enemy may rebound? Is reporting of supported by a loyal readership of between the peace process subject to self-censorship ~o,oooto z5,ooo. Most decent-sized towns in order to maintain the process itself? have at least two newspapers, whose views reflect their readership. Dungannon, a mar- HE MEDIA THAT RREORT on ket town in County Tyrone with a roughly TNorthern Ireland can be divided into 50-yo unionistlnationalist population, has two groups: print and broadcast media both a unionist and a nationalist newspaper. within Northern Ireland, and print and Larne, a staunchly unionist town, has two broadcast media that serve news organiza- newspapers reflecting the two main strands tions based outside Northern Ireland. of unionism-the Ulster Unionists and These two groups operate, it can be argued, Democratic Unionists. These newspapers by different standards of "fairness," based do not attempt to educate or alter the per- on their audience and governmental restric- ceptions of their readers, rather they reflect tions. For example, in the city of Belfast, their views (or prejudices). there are three daily newspapers: the News Marshall McLuhan's aphorism about Letter, the Irish News and the Be@ We- people not reading their paper hut sinking graph. The News Letter, the oldest continu- into it like a warm bath is appropriate here. ously printed English-language newspaper Broadcast media is shackled by the legal on Earth, takes a unionist viewpoint, requirements to achieve "balancen-as The seasonal marches of the Protestant Unionists of the Orange Order, who want to keep Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, attract divided media attention. defined by the codes of practice of the able political debate on radio and television British Broadcasting Corporation and the has been important for those parties obvi- Independent Broadcasting Authority-and ously, but also for the wider audience, who therefore outrages political operators of all tended to demonize them as terrorist apolo- hues. Nationalists accuse the BBC in par- gists. It has also been important for journal- ticular of being run by a Masonic cabal that ists, who could not easily dismiss the views tends towards an Anglocentric viewpoint, of these parties, particularly as recent elec- while unionists point accusingly at journal- tions have shown more than 20 percent ists with "Irish" names (such as SPamw or combined support for SF, the PUP and MairPad). Political parties with paramilitary UDR larger than the center vote, which connections point to a culture of self-cen- averages 15 percent of the electorate. sorship, replacing the statutory censorship that banned Sinn FCin, the Progressive HEN WE TURN to journalists who Unionists and Ulster Democrats from the W report for media organizations based airways from 1988 until 1994. The recent outside Northern Ireland, different rules inclusion of these three parties into accept- and agendas come into play. One of the John O'Farrell: Divided People, Divided Press reasons that "the Troubles" has had a wide ship have operated in both capitals for the international audience, and therefore the past 30 years, producing a self-conscious consequent reason that people here have an consensus that has deepened over the past inflated impression of the importance of five years as Irish "soft" nationalism and our angst, is that we are white and speak British "soft" unionism have politically English. There are 1.y million people merged. involved. There have been just over 3,000 The consequence is a severe disincentive fatalities. Over 29 years. That's peanuts. to rock the boat. Questioning the peace There are loo violent conflicts on the boil process or its players invites accusations in the New World Order. Algeria, Kosovo, that one prefers a state of war. Questioning Rwanda, Chiapas, East Timor or Kurdistan the pervasive and intrusive security state make us look like amateurs. with casualtv that still exists in Northern Ireland invites lists that drown our real tragedies with the accusations that one is "soft" on terrorism. tears of millions. Northern Ireland is an Indeed, distancing oneself from "terrorism" important story. Its resolution will be a is a popular field sport. It means the bizarre sign, and not just to the people living here, spectacle of "democratic" politicians queu- that the demons of ethnic nationalism can ing up to "condemn" the latest atrocity be overcome, that the reason of the while challenging other politicians to do Enlightenment will prevail over the super- likewise in a unique ritual of the virility of stitious sectarianism of the Reformation their constitutionality. Those who do not and the Counter-Reformation. We can condemn, meaning those whose paramili- worry about postmodernism later. tary friends have done the ditty deed, are Reporters for news organizations based themselves condemned for not condemn- outside Northern Ireland see themselves as ing, and so it goes. uniquely impartial; as "outsiders" they are somehow above the fray. While their report- T THIS STAGE,I should bring myself ing is generally balanced, the editorial lines A.lnto the Frame, just so my apparent of their newspapers are anything but. With bias is clear. I was born in Dublin, where I the exception of the Daily Mirror, whose lived until four years ago. A planned stay in l "Trbops Out" line has been blunted over Belfast has become permanent, for personal l recent years, every London paper has always as much as professional reasons. Three years adopted a prounion stance. The Republic's ago, I became managing editor of Fortnight, I papers, with the exception of the Sunday a small independent current affairs and arts l Independent, take a "soft" nationalist line- magazine founded in 1970. Fortnight was \ somewhere between John Hume's Social specifically started as a response to the Democratic and Labor Party and the Irish Troubles and a reaction to the sectarian 1 government-which holds that Irish unity basis of print media in Northern Ireland. can only happen with unionist consent. Fortnight has a policy of encouraging It could be argued that the editorial lines debate by publishing the views of all politi- ! of papers in London and Dublin are at least cal persuasions, which naturally causes reac- subconsciously affected by the political tions. It is a point of perverse pride that the 1 moods around them. Policies of bipartisan- magazine has been accused of being pawns l of the IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force, the sive Unionists or the British Labor govern- Alliance Party, SDLP and British Intelli- ment? For what it's worth, I choose not to gence. On the big constitutional issues, it exercise my franchise here. I believe that I strives toward neutralinr,. but on social. eco- have a dutv to mv readers to strive for as little nomic and cultural issues, it is unashamedly partiality as possible; therefore I cop out of liberal. This means arguing for unpopular making the necessary subjective choices one measures, such as gay rights and the exten- has to make when one contemplates voting. sion of the abortion laws that the more I learn about the peo- rest of the United Kingdom ple and parties that offer them- but are vetoed here by the selves for election, the less I fundamentalist Catholic and ~h~ people most want to vote for any of them.

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