Sinn Féin coming ‘hard and fast’ for the media, says law reform minister James Browne

The Government is to expedite an overhaul of Ireland’s defamation laws in the coming months amid fears Sinn Féin will scrap the long-planned reforms if in government after the next election.

Junior minister for law reform James Browne has taken responsibility for the Defamation Amendment Bill. This week he will meet the Attorney General in a bid to push forward with reforms that will abolish juries in all defamation cases, introduce a new “serious harm test” in some cases, and require solicitors to inform their clients of alternative dispute resolution measures.

Browne said the new law was now “in the national interest” and he criticised a spate of legal actions by Sinn Féin members. “I very much believe this is going to be given the priority it deserves and needs,” he told the Sunday Independent. “A different government won’t necessarily have the same interest. I don’t think Sinn Féin would have any interest in bringing this legislation to pass.”

The assigning of responsibility for defamation reform to a specific minister is a strong signal of the Coalition’s desire to accelerate its plans. Browne has already held talks with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste on the matter.

“It is in the national interest to get this done, and done in the lifetime of this government,” he said. “A free press is essential to democracy. I think the scales have changed.

“Newspapers used to be very, very powerful in this country — but newspapers are now very clearly under threat, their existence is under threat and has been for several years.”

Browne was a practising barrister for 13 years but was never directly involved in a defamation case.

“We are getting into a world where it’s getting harder to hold people to account, harder to get clear and balanced information out there and tackle disinformation and misinformation — you need mainstream media for that purpose,” he said.​

Sinn Féin has said it supports reforms to the Defamation Act. But a number of high-profile legal actions by its members against media organisations have been criticised by press freedom organisations.

“They’re saying they’re supporting this legislation, but if that was the case you’d think they’d start acting in the spirit of it — they seem to be trying to squeeze in every technical and at-the-edge action they can under the current defamation law,” Browne said.

“You can see the sheer number of actions they’re taking. Their members, TDs and senators and MLAs, are not only going after newspapers but individual journalists too — and it’s the timing of it, they are coming hard and fast and many together.”

A Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “Legal actions are entirely a matter for individuals involved. All citizens have the right to protect their name and reputation, and such fundamental legal rights in no way cut across or undermine robust political debate. It is not unreasonable for these debates to be based on fact and truth.

“The Department of Justice has promised for many years to reform defamation laws. As a minister in the aforementioned department, it might be better for minister Browne to expend his energies doing something about that, instead of engaging in inaccurate commentary about Sinn Féin.”

The Fianna Fáil TD dismissed as “very feeble” Sinn Féin’s contention that there is no co-ordinated strategy by the party, and that individuals are simply taking cases in order to vindicate their good names.

“We are talking about a party that is the most regimented, the most marshalled political party,” Browne said.

“But then they want us to accept and believe that when it comes to this kind of attack on the media, they are taking a laissez faire approach to the whole thing, that it’s just some big coincidence of time. I don’t believe that. I believe it’s well co-ordinated. In particular an action where you see an individual journalist being named.

“I believe that’s actually a deliberate ramping up of the targeting on mainstream media. Its purpose is to have a chilling effect and quieten challenges. It shows a real thin skin [from] a party and TDs who have been very quick to go on the attack and can’t take it when it’s put back on them.”

Browne said he would meet the AG this week in a bid to move ahead with the legislation in the coming months. It has already been scrutinised by the Oireachtas Justice Committee.

He said he was keeping its proposal to expand the serious harm test to all cases “under review”, but expressed concerns as to whether it would comply with people’s constitutional right to be protected from unjust attack.

But he disagrees with the committee recommendation to retain juries, arguing they are already abolished for defamation in the civil courts. “High Court juries increase the cost significantly and make it more difficult for people to bring their cases,” he said.

He is also pushing ahead with plans to ban daytime gambling advertising on TV in the face of strident opposition from the industry, which claims it could shut down dedicated horse racing channels in Ireland.

“[The legislation] is drafted in such a way that anything you can see at a horse race today you’ll be able to see after this legislation passes. The hoarding will still be there, you will still be able to have Paddy Power calling out the odds, you can still call it the Paddy Power Cup — that in itself is a compromise,” he said.

He said greater regulation of gambling is a path being pursued across Europe and he hopes to pass the new laws by the end of the summer with the new regime, including the Gambling Regulatory Authority, fully in place by the end of 2025.

“We’re seeing the huge damage that’s been done in recent years,” he said. “The level of gambling among young women is increasing massively, and problem gambling is getting worse among younger people. You’re seeing men in their early 20s getting into serious gambling.”

Browne visited an treatment centre in Limerick last year where he met people who had lost their homes and marriages. “They all said the same thing: no one knew they had a problem, until it was way too late and the sheriff or the guards were at the door,” he said. We’re not about banning gambling, but it’s a risky business and it’s destroying an awful lot of lives. And in my view it’s getting worse.”

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