No defeat for IRA
From Mr Jonathan Freedland Sir: One hates to pour cold water on such an imaginative thesis, but now that Stephen Glover has repeated his eccentric claims about the Guardian (Media studies, 11 March), perhaps some facts are in order. He is right that I write many of the paper's leaders on Northern Ireland — but wrong in almost every other respect.
First, I have never so much as discussed Northern Ireland with Ronan Bennett, let alone taken instruction from him.
Second, I will talk with Republican sources the same way I talk with officials of Nationalism, Unionism and Loyalism. Like any journalist writing in this area, I regard it as my job to have contacts with all sides and to speak to them. If this strikes Mr Glover as odd journalistic practice, then perhaps that says more about him than about the Guardian.
Lastly, his main charge: that the Guardian is pro-IRA. Wrong. As even his own reading of our editorials must make clear, our paper is pro-peace and pro-Good Friday Agreement. It is not pro-IRA. It simply seeks to explain that a chance exists for peace in Northern Ireland — and that grasping it means no side can be asked to accept complete defeat. We argued that in South Africa. We argue that now in the Middle East. And we argue it in Northern Ireland, That is not the work of some imag- ined 'cell'. It is our reasoned judgment. Stephen Glover does not have to like it, but there it is.
Jonathan Freedland
Policy Editor, The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1
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