Why is the British taxpayer supporting a Sinn Fein newspaper group?
Whenever a new newspaper launches in any part of the world, a little voice inside one's head cheers. Naturally that voice is all the louder when the paper is in one's own country. So I rejoiced when I heard that a new daily title is under consideration in Northern Ireland. My enthusiasm was somewhat tempered, I confess, when I discovered that it has the backing of Sinn Fein, but it was not entirely extinguished. It is surely better for Sinn Fein to be in the business of publishing newspapers than firing bullets, and the planned title is a further piece of evidence that, whatever difficulties Northern Ireland may face, armed struggle is a thing of the past.
But, as so often in Northern Ireland, things are not quite what they seem. The group which intends to publish the new daily is seeking £3 million from the Northern Ireland Office. Not only that. The company in question, the Andersonstown Newspaper Group, has already received substantial government grants. Its publisher is Mairtin O'Muilleoir, a former Sinn Fein councillor in Belfast. The group publishes the pro-Sinn Fein Andersonstown News. the North Belfast News and the South Belfast News. By far the biggest payment it has received from government for these newspapers in the period 1999-2004 is £347,375. The Andersonstown Newspaper Group also has management responsibility for the publication of the Irish-language newspaper La on behalf of Preas an Phobail Ltd, which has itself received significant official subsidy, including one payment of £128,139.
It is an established feature of democracy that government does not support independent newspapers. How then can the payments to the Andersonstown Newspaper Group be justified? It seems that the company has attracted funds on the basis that it publishes community newspapers and provides much-needed jobs. It is unclear whether any other newspaper group in Northern Ireland, or indeed Great Britain, has received any government subsidy. On 13 July Lady Hermon, the pro-Good Friday Agreement Ulster Unionist MP for Down North, asked a Northern Ireland minister whether any other grants had been paid to publishers in Northern Ireland, and she awaits a reply. If it turns out that the Andersonstown Newspaper Group is the only recipient, the government will have some explaining to do.
There can be little doubt that the planned daily will be a vehicle for Sinn Fein. (It was to be called Ireland Today until a challenge came from Rupert Murdoch, who had registered that trademark. At the moment it is nameless.) Present at a recent unveiling of the project were leading members of Sinn Fein such as Gerry Adams, Bairbre de Bruin and Alex Maskey. Peter Quinn, a prominent Catholic businessman, delivered a strongly nationalist speech, and was followed by Mairtin O'Muilleoir. The paper plans to target the 160,000 Sinn Fein voters in Northern Ireland, as well as the 120,000 who support the party in the border counties. As well as seeking funds from the government, the Andersonstown Newspaper Group is hoping to secure investment from Irish Americans.
There are two strong arguments against the government offering grants. One is market interference. Northern Ireland has three dailies — the nationalist Irish News, the Protestant News Letter and the crosscommunity Belfast Telegraph. The Irish News, which has a circulation of about 50,000, would be badly affected by the launch of a successful new daily newspaper also aimed at the Catholic community. There could be no objection if the new daily were prepared to win its place in the market at the expense of the Irish News through a straightforward fight. But it would be grossly unfair if the new paper were protected by government subsidy from the commercial realities in which the Irish News has to fight for its living.
That argument should be sufficient by itself to block any further funding, but there is another one. Why should the government give taxpayers' money to a newspaper which supports a united Ireland and is associated with a political party that has only recently renounced violence? That is surely taking self-flagellation a little too far. One can understand why the authorities should be happy to see Sinn Fein pursue its arguments in the form of the printed word rather than via the Armalite, but that is no reason to pour money into its newspaper.
Notwithstanding its former grants to the Andersonstown Newspaper Group, it is rumoured that the Northern Ireland Office may be alive to these arguments, and is unlikely to offer any further grants. There are suggestions, though, that No. 10, and in particular Jonathan Powell, are keen to help out if a way can be found. Even as things stand, government grants already paid to the Andersonstown Newspaper Group have facilitated the purchase of new printing presses which would be used to produce the new daily newspaper. The government has already interfered too much. Let the Andersonstown Newspaper Group and its planned daily fight it out in the market place, and end these official, and covert, newspaper subsidies.
T ast Thursday all newspapers carried _L./stories about the Butler report on their front pages — except the Sun. Most papers devoted several inside pages to analysing and commenting upon what Lord Butler and his colleagues wrote, but the Sun found room for less than two pages. It treated the report as though it almost completely exonerated Blair and the government while making only a few mild criticisms. Its news story began with the assertion that 'Tony Blair was dramatically cleared of fiddling intelligence material to justify war on Iraq'. An accompanying editorial followed a similar line. Readers were told that 'arguing over whether the so-called 45-minute claim should or should not have been included in the Downing Street dossier will achieve about as much as debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It just isn't relevant. Saddam has gone. The Iraqi people are liberated and have hope again. This is the lasting achievement of Tony Blair and George W. Bush.'
The Sun is entitled to its views, which many readers of this magazine may share. What is objectionable is the way in which the paper has censored bad news about Iraq. As it virtually ignored the pictures of American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners, so it absurdly underplays the many criticisms of the government in the Butler report. Nothing can be allowed to stand in the way of Rupert Murdoch's judgment that the war against Iraq was a good thing, and that George W. Bush is a great president and Tony Blair a fine prime minister. The Sun's ten million readers are never told the full truth so that they can make up their minds one way or another. Many newspapers manipulate facts to suit their view of the world. The Sun has hit on the more sinister stratagem of leaving them out altogether.
Previous page
