Comments made by Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams about holding the editor of a national newspaper at gunpoint are gravely concerning, the chairman of National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) has said.
Vincent Crowley, chairman of the organisation which represents Ireland’s national newspapers, said Mr Adams’s remarks, “while apparently in jest”, were not only “wholly insensitive”, given journalists had lost their lives in the course of their work, “but demonstrate a lack of understanding of the role of a free press as a vital bulwark of a healthy democracy”.
Mr Adams told donors at the Friends of Sinn Féin fundraiser in New York last week that the Independent Group of Newspapers opposed the party’s efforts at building peace 20 years ago, and continued to attack the party today.
He referred to the Irish Independent's call for the leaders of the 1916 Rising to be executed and described how Michael Collins dealt with a critical press.
“He went in, sent volunteers in, to the offices, held the editor at gunpoint, and destroyed the entire printing press. That’s what he did. Now I can just see the headline in the Independent tomorrow, I’m obviously not advocating that,” he said.
Mr Crowley said that while a free press may sometimes make for uncomfortable reading for politicians and others, it remains an indispensable means of keeping the public informed and holding those in positions of power accountable.
“For those, like Mr Adams, who wish to complain about a newspaper article, the Office of Press Ombudsman and Press Council of Ireland is the appropriate independent forum,” he said.
