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Sunday Tribune's treatment of abuse allegations deplorable
28 January 2010 --
During an interview on RTE radio with Pat Kenny last week, the Sunday Tribune’s
Northern editor, Suzanne Breen, complained that Sinn Féin’s public release of
the details of the extent of Liam Adams’ involvement in the party had “spoiled
her story” – perfectly summing up the newspaper’s approach to the recent abuse
allegations.
The use of distortions, lies, and manipulation by sections of the Irish and
British media in politically motivated campaigns against republicans is not new
or surprising. But to use these means in a campaign that seeks to exploit the
pain and trauma of survivors of rape and child abuse for political reasons is
particularly despicable.
The women who have recently spoken out about experiencing child abuse and rape
have acted with strength and courage. They have every right to recount their
experiences publicly through the media and to be listened to. They have every
right to feel anger and frustration that they are still fighting for action to
be taken against their alleged abusers, in some cases many years after raising
the allegations.
The PSNI, Public Prosecution Service and Social Services urgently need to take
the appropriate actions in order to provide justice and closure for these women.
These agencies, which have the statutory duty and the capacity to bring about
justice for victims of abuse and sexual assault, must be held accountable for
their failure to have resolved these cases.
Victims and survivors of abuse also have the right to tell their stories
publicly without fear that their experiences will be exploited for media
sensationalism or political purposes, and without the fear that the media will
breach their legal rights.
All of us – victims and survivors, and members of the general public – have the
right to expect that the media will treat the issue of sexual abuse with the
highest ethical and professional standards.
The Sunday Tribune has tried to portray itself as being a champion of the rights
of abuse survivors. But its actions tell a different story and show very clearly
that the paper does not have protecting the rights, interests and wellbeing of
survivors at heart.
Constructing a cover-up
As part of a series of articles written since last December’s UTV Insight
programme aired, in which Áine Tyrell publicly voiced allegations of rape and
sexual abuse against her father Liam Adams, The Sunday Tribune has sought to
construct a story portraying Gerry Adams’ role in responding to allegations
against Liam as being a ‘cover-up’ – despite the fact that Gerry has repeatedly
outlined the series of actions he took to support his niece and to support the
investigation and legal case against Liam.
The paper has further alleged that there was a policy in place among the IRA and
Sinn Féin leadership of covering up allegations of rape and sexual abuse
levelled against republicans.
In its effort to manufacture this ‘conspiracy’, the Sunday Tribune has breached
the legal rights of an alleged victim, defamed several individuals, and breached
numerous ethical and journalistic principles and standards.
The paper has:
•Breached the statutory right of an alleged victim of sexual abuse to anonymity.
•Disregarded considerations of legal issues surrounding pending police
investigations and possible future trials of suspected abusers.
•Suggested Gerry Adams’ public disclosure of child abuse by his father of his
siblings was a publicity stunt.
•Stated that Gerry Adams was previously aware of allegations of abuse against an
elected Sinn Féin representative and failed to take action, when the alleged
victim had told the paper prior to the article’s publication that this was not
the case.
•Claimed that a person accused of abuse was “currently” a Sinn Féin public
representative. A simple phone call to Sinn Féin would have informed the Tribune
that the party had suspended the accused member without prejudice pending any
investigation by the PSNI after it was made aware of the allegations last year,
and informed Social Services of the case in writing.
•Published a totally false and defamatory front-page headline on 17 January
claiming ‘Gerry Adams ignored two more rape victims’.
•Consistently refused to offer the right to respond to allegations to Gerry
Adams, other Sinn Féin activists it accused of complicity in cover-ups, and Sinn
Féin as a whole before publishing unsubstantiated allegations in the paper, then
failed to retract such allegations after they had been shown to be untrue.
•Deliberately tried to link in readers’ minds the endemic sexual and physical
abuse of thousands of children in Catholic Church-run institutions, and the
systematic cover-up over six decades by the Church and state, with the
allegations of sexual abuse against republicans.
Treatment of victims
The Sunday Tribune’s treatment of this issue has been sensationalist and
exploitative. The paper has shown a callous disregard for the rights and
wellbeing of victims and survivors and their families.
By far the worst aspect of the Tribune’s campaign against Sinn Féin and Gerry
Adams has been its treatment of the woman who was interviewed by the paper and
alleged being abused by the individual the paper referred to as “X”.
The woman said in a public statement issued by Madden and Finucane solicitors
that she did not wish to be publicly identified as a victim of sexual abuse and
that her legal representatives informed the Sunday Tribune of this before the
publication of the article.
After assuring her “unequivocally” through her solicitors that she would not be
directly or inadvertently identified as an alleged victim of sexual abuse, the
Tribune acted in total disregard of the woman’s expressed wishes and legal
rights and published information that made her easily identifiable within her
local community.
The woman said the paper had “manipulated” her and the publication of the
article was a breach of her statutory right to anonymity and human right to
privacy. She said this had caused her “immense hurt, upset and distress” and
that she is now taking legal action against the Sunday Tribune.
Madden and Finucane said in a statement that they had also “highlighted that any
reporting of the nature that was proposed could prejudice the prospects of a
successful prosecution [of the person accused of abuse]” prior to the article’s
publication.
In its 24 January edition, the Sunday Tribune responded by unashamedly stating
it had acted correctly. It refused to print the woman’s statement saying that
she had been “manipulated” by the paper and instead attributed the word to Sinn
Féin. On RTE radio Suzanne Breen made wild and ridiculous claims that the woman
had decided she did not want to be identified because she was being “threatened”
by Sinn Féin.
What is irrefutable, disgraceful and utterly hypocritical is that the alleged
victim took legal action to prevent her identification prior to the publication
of the article and the Sunday Tribune ignored this.
If the Sunday Tribune were actually committed to the rights of victims and
survivors of child abuse, as it professes to be, it would understand the
significance of the legal and human right to anonymity of victims of sexual
abuse, and respect this right.
The newspaper selectively printed correspondence from the alleged victim’s
brother that supported the paper’s accusation that Gerry Adams had been informed
of the abuse allegations by a member of the victim’s family but had failed to
act. What it didn’t print was the brother’s subsequent clarification that Gerry
had not in fact been informed. Nor did the paper print any evidence that it had
bothered to try to verify this claim. Basic journalistic procedures such as
verifying claims with their sources are evidently not necessary during a
witch-hunt.
The Sunday Tribune has also decided that Gerry Adams’ family members who are
victims of childhood sexual abuse are not entitled to public support or to their
rights and needs as abuse survivors, but instead should have the disclosure of
their experiences dismissed as being a mere public relations exercise.
This difficult personal disclosure by Adams was made in the interest of speaking
openly and frankly about abuse and challenging the culture of concealment that
surrounds it. The disclosure, collectively decided by his family, was made in
the context of his niece going public with allegations of abuse against her
father and because Gerry’s family experience has informed his position on
dealing with abuse and was directly relevant to the case.
These actions demonstrate without a shadow of a doubt the Tribune editor’s lack
of genuine concern for victims and survivors.
‘Spoiling the story’
The front-page headline ‘Gerry Adams ignores two more rape victims’; the
allegation that Gerry had been aware of abuse allegations against a Sinn Féin
representative and failed to act; and the allegation that the accused person was
currently a Sinn Féin public representative – all of these false and very
serious allegations made in the 17 January edition of the Tribune could have
been avoided had the paper contacted Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin.
Similarly, the Sinn Féin activists named in the article discussing the
experience of Ms Cahill should have been offered the opportunity to outline
their recollections and role in the case in the paper.
But, as Suzanne Breen explained in the RTE radio interview with Pat Kenny,
putting these allegations to Sinn Féin and allowing the party to respond would
have “spoiled the story”.
She was indignant that Sinn Féin had published the findings of party National
Chairperson Declan Kearney’s report on the extent of Liam Adams’ involvement in
the party on 15 January and claimed the party was trying to spoil her story for
the coming edition of the Sunday Tribune based on the list of questions the
paper had sent to Gerry Adams.
Sinn Féin had already informed the media before even receiving these questions
that the findings of the National Chairperson’s report would be made public the
following day, immediately after they were reported to the party leadership
bodies.
Nevertheless, Breen used this “spoiling the story” line to justify why the
Sunday Tribune had failed to put the allegations made in the 17 January edition
to any of the several Sinn Féin members it levelled such serious and defamatory
charges against for them to respond to.
This cynical and sensationalist approach demonstrates again the true nature of
the Sunday Tribune’s handling of these tragic cases – as being a politically
motivated attempt to smear an individual and a political party, with little
consideration for establishing the facts.
Smearing republicanism
The Sunday Tribune and Suzanne Breen have tried to compare the handling by Sinn
Féin of allegations of sexual abuse against Liam Adams and two other people who
were involved in republicanism with abuse and cover-ups by the Catholic Church.
Writing on the Liam Adams case in the Belfast Telegraph on 5 January, Breen
said: “It’s a cover-up that rivals anything the Catholic Church could conduct.”
This is not only a wildly inaccurate, dishonest statement; it is also
exploitative. Ireland as a nation is still reeling from revelations of the pain,
grief and trauma caused by abuse that was uncovered in the Ryan report last
year. The inquiry heard from more than 2,000 adults who had been sexually,
physically and emotionally abused as children in 216 Catholic Church-run
institutions over six decades, and it found evidence of a systematic policy of
cover-up by the Church and state.
The experiences recounted by Áine Tyrell and the two other Belfast women
interviewed by the Sunday Tribune provoked genuine horror among us all.
However, the Sunday Tribune’s attempt to invent a cover-up policy among
republicans that could be compared with the institutionalised Catholic Church
and state cover-up is transparently exploitative of this hugely emotive issue
and does not have any basis in fact. This is deplorable, morally bankrupt
journalism.
Sections of the media have handled this issue in a way that potentially
discourages other victims and survivors from coming forward in future for fear
that their experiences may be manipulated for political purposes.
The Sunday Tribune claims it would “pursue any political party with equal
vigour” if allegations of sexual abuse were made against members. As the paper’s
actions over recent weeks have demonstrated its poor journalistic and ethical
standards, as well as the politically motivated nature of its campaign, I
seriously doubt this.
A serious discussion on this issue would start by acknowledging that child abuse
is experienced across all sections of Irish society, regardless of class,
religion or political background. It would acknowledge the specific experience
in the Six Counties during a period of conflict, where the nationalist community
widely, and with good reason, distrusted the police and other statutory agencies
with the responsibility to protect children and take action against alleged
abusers.
If abuse allegations were referred to individuals during the conflict who lacked
the necessary knowledge, skills and professional training as to how allegations
should be dealt with and how to meet the needs of victims, the chances are they
would have been dealt with inadequately.
The culture of concealment, shame and secrecy that surrounds sexual abuse and
means that victims are reluctant to raise allegations publicly was compounded in
the North by the lack of a civic policing and justice system.
These facts and this context have been ignored in much of the media’s coverage
of the recent abuse allegations.
The Sunday Tribune and other media outlets have failed to investigate the role
of the statutory agencies charged with protecting children from abuse and
prosecuting those responsible for it.
Broadly speaking, investigating the failures of these agencies, holding them to
account and determining how child protection can be strengthened is the obvious
way forward for those of us who are interested in preventing child abuse and
prosecuting abusers.
The Sunday Tribune’s website has refused to publish several comments I have
submitted criticising their treatment of this issue. So let me say this here: we
have experienced attempts to demonise and smear this community many times
before. We reject and resent the insinuation that we don’t cherish our children
and their safety, and that we don’t value the rights and wellbeing of women.
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