inky

2009-03-25

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Blimey. I leave the country for a bit and it turns into some kind of tinpot fiefdom where one dares not to mock the king.

— cilliandoc on #picturegate (What’s this about?)

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The original RTÉ report on the Brian Cowen caricatures. Bonus lulz in the caption.

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The Taoiseach has no clothes and RTÉ has no balls

No taoisigh were harmed in the making of this image. You may experience some nausea yourself though, for which I apologise, but this is about principle, freedom of speech, and news staying news. […]

This needs to be screamed from the rooftops: the very freedom to express dissent and poke fun at those in power is being attacked.

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RTE apologise for disrespect to Office of Taoiseach

This country is such a mess.

nosmo:

I know I’ve been posting a lot of Ireland-related articles recently, but it seems that the shit is hitting the fan for this little cardboard country.

Over the last weekend, someone hung satirical portraits of Brian Cowen (our Taoiseach — not prime minister but kinda like it) in the National Gallery in Dublin. Not as part of an exhibition and without authorisation. Obviously, this was pretty funny and every major news outlet reported on it. But then this happened:

Tonight RTE apologised for offence caused to Mr. Cowen and his family and disrespect caused to the Office of Taoiseach.

The biggest TV news outlet in the country apologises (and self-censors, retroactively — all mention of the paintings have been removed from recorded news reports) at the whim of the state. Oh, but it gets better.

This morning the painter of these satirical works was interviewed on a popular morning radio show. This morning Gardaí (police) “visited” the radio station in order to make inquiries about the identity of the painter. If there’s a warrant involved I’m absolutely disgusted but not shocked. If there isn’t I’m probably just as shaken - the police turn up in order to try and bully information on an anonymous source out of a journalist.

Update 2: Mr Hanafin said he was told that the gardai wanted the name and contact details of the artist so they could caution him and when he declined to pass the information on, he was told a warrant might be sought to get access to the show’s email.

So it could always be worse. You may not be able to take photos of the police without suspicion, but we can’t even report on complaints about the state.

Update:

Fianna Fáil TD Michael Kennedy last night called on RTÉ director general Cathal Goan to consider his position. The report “represented a gross insult to the position of An Taoiseach, not to mention a personal affront to the dignity of the man himself”, Mr Kennedy said in a statement.

The item “was obviously seen as a piece of entertainment – biased and partisan entertainment”, and raised “serious questions about the agenda at play in the RTÉ newsroom”, he added.

Source: nosmo