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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— April – May 2013
T
HE Northern media has a dispropor-
tionately important role to play in
scrutinising the political process, given
that the five main political parties are
cosily in the Executive, and of Assembly
members are members of those parties. However,
it is largely under-resourced for the task.
The Detail website provides the most signifi-
cant investigative work. It receives funding from
Atlantic Philanthropies and Northern Ireland
Screen. The Detail employs five full-time journal-
ists and a video editor. It has done particularly
in-depth work on health and education.
The other main producer of investigative mate-
rial is BBC Northern Ireland. The BBC has suffered
serious job cuts, with an estimated further
to go by . Its investigative programme,
Spotlight, lacked the requisite incisiveness for
several years. However, it has become stronger
in recent months. Last year it tracked movement
of monies belonging to Seán Quinn’s family into
Eastern Europe to hide them from the receiver.
Ulster Television (UTV) is the other main
TV broadcaster. Four years ago it cut news
output by %, and axed its investigative pro-
gramme, Insight. Thirteen journalists, mostly
very experienced,
took redundancy. A
former UTV journalist
said these cuts were a
result of OFCOM, the
UK’s broadcasting
and telecommunica-
tions regulator, failing
to hold UTV to its obli-
gation to produce
hours weekly of cur-
rent affairs.
Being Northern
Ireland there is, nat-
urally, a sectarian
division in the media. The best-selling daily, the
Irish News, takes a broadly nationalist editorial
line. The Belfast Telegraph sees its editorial line
as cross-community, though it is widely per-
ceived as unionist with small u. The third daily,
the Newsletter, is Unionist.
The Irish News is the only locally-owned
daily. In recent years, it has strengthened its
news coverage, though sometimes carrying too
much syndicated material from agencies. Most
recently, the Irish News ran a series of stories on
the expenses of First Minister Peter Robinson
and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness,
during a joint trip to Brazil in March. This caused
Robinson unsportingly to call on the public not
to buy the paper.
The Irish News has also taken steps to become
more accessible to Unionist readers. Lurgan
Loyalist Barrie Bradbury says that it sells well in
the strongly Protestant Mourneview Estate where
he lives. “Nearly all the shops and garages round
Loyalist areas keep it now, whereas a few years
ago they wouldn’t have it on the shelf” Bradbury
told Village. “Loads of people say ‘Did you see in
the Irish News?’ where years ago, you, wouldn’t
have heard that”.
Until last year, the Belfast Telegraph was
the largest-selling daily. Its identity was as an
afternoon paper: however, it shifted to morning
publication. Circulation has fallen by two-thirds
in years. The ‘Tele’ is owned by Independent
News and Media (INM), and shares its owner’s
difficulties. The paper has suffered major job cuts,
with editorial numbers having fallen from approx-
imately to a current . It has, however,
delivered on some stories; the most spectacular
being David Gordon’s work on the links between
Ian Paisley Junior, generally known as ‘Baby Doc’,
and property developer Seymour Sweeney. This
ultimately led to the resignation of Ian Paisley
(Senior) as DUP leader and First Minister.
The News Letter is suffering major problems
from lack of editorial resources. Scottish-based
owners Johnston Press are seriously indebted,
and reduced their workforce by % last year.
Most recently, the Newsletter’s sub-editing
operation was transferred to Scotland. It is per-
ceived as relying on an ageing rural Protestant
readership.
Both the North’s Sunday newspapers, the
‘Sunday World’ and ‘Sunday Life’, are tabloids
owned by INM. Given the parent company’s dif-
ficulties, there must be doubt as to how long it
will continue to publish two tabloids. Despite the
limitations of the genre, both – in particular the
Sunday World - carry investigative material on
issues of public interest such as planning.
The weekly local press consists of over
newspapers. Half are controlled by two groups:
Johnston Press, with newspapers: and Alpha
(owned by Ulster Unionist peer, John Taylor, oth-
erwise known as Lord Kilclooney), with . The
North’s sectarian divisions result in there being
two papers in most towns, one perceived as
catering to nationalists, the other to unionists.
The self-evident potential advantages of diver-
sity, albeit within the sectarian range, are usually
negated due to neither paper having sufficient
resources.
Anton McCabe has been a freelance contributor
to the Sunday World, Sunday Life, Newsletter and
Spotlight.
anton mccabe
news
The
Belfast
Telegraph’s
editorial
numbers
having
fallen from
approximately
120 to 60
Must try harder
Investigative journalism in the North is ill-served on-air and in print
Just not that good, really
