Rebels Yell For 'Freedom of Speech' [Part 1]

We currently live in a society which is perceived to be awash with claims and praise for operating within a ‘Free’ media spectra, which is deemed as a prerequisite for political Freedom. However, as reported in today’s article of the Sunday Tribune newspaper, their Northern Ireland editor Suzanne Breen, is coming under increasing pressure over this very issue! The above mentioned article explains why Ms. Breen won’t be succumbing to Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) pressure to release documents, pertaining to her contact with members of the Real IRA. This follow’s last Monday’s demand by the PSNI for Suzanne Breen, to hand over vital journalistic documents pertaining to these interviews and have threatened legal action under the powers of the Anti Terrorism Act. On the incident involving the PSNI visit to her home Ms. Breen declared:

‘Detectives wanted my computer, disks, notes, phone, and any material relating to stories I’d written about the Real IRA … I was given three days to comply. If I didn’t, they’d seek a court order under the Terrorism Act. I won’t be complying’

~Suzanne Breen~

Ms Breen is well within her rights as a journalist to protect her sources as stipulated in (Point 7) of the National Union of Journalists' Code of Conduct . Also, according to these Codes Of Conduct, she has sole privilege to her unpublished notes and research. Ms Breen’s position has been fully endorsed by her union, editor and the newspaper
.
Freedom of Speech: Under the Spotlight

If our fledgling PSNI, were to pursue their threat of court action to in-force handover of Ms Breen’s documentation, this will not have been the first occurrence of a British police force attempting such action in the name of public safety!

One of the legal matters I am eluding to, is that of the court ruling in favour of Shiv Malik, controversial British journalist, on June 19th 2008. In brief, the Greater Manchester Police sought a court injunction for Malik , to hand over party of his interview notes for his forthcoming book on self-confessed former Islamic extremist, Hassan Butt. At the time of the ruling Mr Malik described the ruling as a ‘victory for common sense’.

Presiding over this case, Lord Justice John Dyson said:

"A balance has to be struck between the protection of confidential material of journalists and the interest of us all in facilitating effective terrorist investigations. It is for the court to strike that balance. It is for the police to satisfy the court that the balance should be struck in favour of making (the necessary) order."

This is currently a hotly debated subject as revealed by a recent poll in the Irish Times which narrowly (57% -vs-43%) favoured in support of maintaining journalistic integrity of their sources.

Suppression of ‘Freedom of Speech’; A World Perspective

Throughout the world there are numerous examples where journalists and reporters have been targeted in their line of duty. It has been recently estimated that an average of two journalists have been murdered every week during the last ten years.

These have included:

• Several BBC reporters have been seriously injured or killed in their line of duty, including, Kate Peyton , who was shot and killed in Mogadishu. Also, their conflict specialist reporter, Alan Johnson , whilst reporting in Gaza, was abducted for 114 days and then released, having conducted three years of independent reporting from that conflict zone.

• The United States, which is classed as having the world’s freest press, has had it’s reputation dented by several well-publicized court cases. U.S. reporters have been sent to jail for refusing to reveal the names of confidential sources. One such example is that of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller spending 85 days in jail for refusing to name sources

• The groundbreaking Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya , was shot and killed in the stairway of her Moscow apartment.

Her name, and others, have joined a growing international list of journalists murdered, injured, intimidated and prevented from doing their work in recent years.

‘Freedom of Speech’: Northern Ireland Context

In ALL former conflict zones, from war-torn Yugoslavia to areas of Central and South America, and Africa, it’s understood that independent journalistic institutions are an integral part of building, or rebuilding stable political structures and hence the broader civil society. Through much of The Troubles, Northern Ireland society was perched upon a trembling proverbial tight rope.

As a result, Northern Ireland, is considered the most politicised region in the world, with a deep sectarian and highly fractious history embedded in our culture. This embattled history as led to our peoples being much more politically aware within this British jurisdiction since the cease fire, hence the success and popularity of such websites as Slugger O’Toole.

Suzanne Breen has rose to prominence in Ireland through straight forward and factual investigative journalism on the recent upsurge in dissident Republican activity on this island. She can no way be accused of being an opportunistic, delusional sensationalist, on her reporting of rumblings of discontent within grass root Republicanism and it’s perceived implications on the ‘Peace Process’!  The Sunday Tribune northern editor reaffirmed she would take her sources

“to the grave”

after barrister Tony McGlennan — acting on behalf of the Chief Constable — successfully applied to give evidence in a closed court session.

However, this case is by no mean’s the first to be in the spotlight with regards to Northern Ireland. Ed Maloney, Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnson have felt the wrath of the State for posing difficult questions on prevalent issues. All three brought cases for police encroachment and were duly vindicated.

One set of people who need no convincing about the positive potential of free and serious journalism are those who are against the building of open and peaceful societies. To them, free media represents a dangerous threat - precisely because of its potential to increase understanding and to stimulate new and fruitful debate!
.
Never doubt the significant impact that accurate, impartial, independent journalism can make upon shaping the true perceptions that the outside world have of a country's political regime!

Related Aticles

Anthony McIntyree

Slugger O’Toole

Belfast Telgraph

BBC News

Read More

Rebels Yell Tribute To Bobby Sands: Bobby, We Salute You!

On this day, the 7th May, 1981:

[Bobby Sands (Roibeard Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh) 9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981]

Was laid in his final resting place……….

As I woke up this morning I felt a strange sense of apprehension! Upon making my obligatory cup of coffee and switched on my battle scared laptop, I sat patiently waiting for it to stutter into life open my portal to cyber world! As the home page for the rebels yell flashed into focus, I became hypnotically fixated upon one solitary image on my home page:

000 DAYS 00 HRS 00 MINS 00 SECS UNTIL BOBBY SANDS 28TH ANNIV.

But Why Now, I Asked Myself? I added this widget several weeks ago ( March 1st, 66 days in fact!) as a gentle reminder to myself and my readers of this immortal date and it’s significance for the cause.

As I starred blankly into the screen I unconsciously began quietly humming (as if driven by a primal gut instinct) the opening verse of the H- Block song!

‘I am a proud young Irishman

From Ulster's hill my life began

A happy boy through green fields ran

And I kept God's and man's laws

But when my age was barely ten

My country's wrongs were told again

By tens of thousands marching men

And my heart stared to their cause.’

~The H-Block Song~

Memories of those care free days growing up in this era came flooding back. As every juvenile Ógra Republican of that generation will tell you, learning and reciting Irish Republican Folk songs celebrating Ireland’s fallen heroes (& heroines), was intrically entwined into growing up! Growing up, these songs re-enforced a serine sense of pride, passion and support for our countrymen’s fight for cultural identity and ultimate Freedom.

I began to recollect snippets of that period of my childhood, when Bobby Sands both captivated and galvanised the mood of his people’s struggle. I remembered wakening up every morning for school, having breakfast around the kitchen table, with one ear finely tuned into the news bulletins from the wireless in the corner, waiting for any scrap of related news!

Why did Maggie

(NO!, NO!, NO!,)

Thatcher and the British government feel not one ounce of compassion to these brave men of Ireland? How were Bobby Sand’s and the other hunger strikers bearing up? And as the Hunger Strike intensified, How many men would have to give up their lives? Oh, cruel Britain when will they ever listen!

So I'll wear no convict's uniform

Nor meekly serve my time

That Britain might brand Ireland's fight

800 Years of crime

~The H-Block Song~

.
Bobby Sands and his comrades used pen names,Marcella ,and a host of ingenious techniques to communicate their thoughts with the outside world. But this bureaucratic British Censorship of the Freedom of Speech was also imposed on the outside as well in various guises (e.g. Article 31). Are we again to bear witness to various guises of this infringement on basic human rights to rear it’s vile head today, I wonder?

Instead I have decided to focus from a personal point of view and draw upon my own atypical experiences and emotions from that time. Every Irish nationalist will definitely agree with me about the indelible imprint this left upon us all, as a generation. None of us can possibly fathom the personal inner conviction and self determination required to drive a man/woman to that ultimate sacrifice!

During that period of time from, 5th May to the 20th August 1981, nine more brave Irish men were to commit their lives to the Patriot Game. However, we can gain an invaluable insight into the inner most thoughts of a man, who gallantly lead his comrades into their final realm of this epic battle of wills! His diaries, which he compiled during the first 17 days of his fast for justice, express exactly this! The very first inserts recites as:

‘I am standing on the threshold of another trembling world. May God have mercy on my soul.’

~Bobby Sands~

The Hunger Strike

The role of the Hunger Strike has been both devisive and pivotal, through out Ireland’s, (as one nation!), quest for Freedom, Equality & Fraternity.
Between 1913-1920, over 1000 prisoners went on hunger strike alone. This was followed by consecutive IRA Hunger Strikes in 1920, 1923 and 1940. During the 1970’s Irish prisoner’s died on hunger Strike whilst being incarcerated in British prisons in England. This was followed by both the 1985-86 & 1995 INLA Hunger Strike’s.

The 1981 Hunger Strike itself was proceeded by the 1980 Hunger Strike and followed five years of the Blanket and No Wash protests in The Maze and Armagh prisons. They were seen as the final and unequivocal acts of defiance towards British stubbornness regarding the granting of Irish Political Prisoner’s status. Rather than delve to far into the complexities of this strategy, (because to try and afford them their the proper due consideration would only serve them an injustice), suffice to say that it effectively hinged on five simple but humanistic demands!!!!!:

The five demands were:
(1) No prison uniform;
(2) No prison work;
(3) Free association;
(4) Full remission;
(5) Visits, parcels, and recreational/educational facilities.

Bobby Sands: A Personal Reflection

If there is one person from history who embellishes the exponents of that famous biblical phrase;
‘all things to all men’,
~1 Corinthians 9:22 (King James Version)~

one person immediately springs to mind, Bobby Sands!

His eternal youth , will be enshrined in Irish Republican folklore. His conviction as a secular martyr to our Fight for Freedom, has elevated to similar status of such iconic figures as, Parnell, Pearse, Connolly, Wolfe Tone et al……. a freedom-fighting Irish Republican revolutionary and a martyr for OUR cause! To you and I, the local work classing lad, thrust into the world spotlight, to take a stance against an Imperialist regime. To the British Government of that day and Democratic and Ulster Unionists nothing but a mere common criminal and terrorist. To loyalists, a talismanic figure to be hated and scorned upon.

But most of all to me and my fellow constituents of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, he was OUR Member of Parliament , OUR martyr for the cause and above all OUR first voice against 800 years of Imperialist oppression

They say that Helen of Troy launched a thousand ships but to me on this day 7th May 1981. in Mill Town cemetery, Bobby Sands raised a Cead Mille Spearoid!

I will leave you to quietly contemplate and reflect upon on what Bobby Sand’s means to YOU with this final insert from his diaries:

[Ní bhrisfidh siad mé mar tá an fonn saoirse, agus saoirse mhuintir na hÉireann i mo chroí. Tiocfaidh lá eigin nuair a bheidh an fonn saoirse seo le taispeáint ag daoine go léir na hÉireann ansin tchífidh muid éirí ná gealaí.]

[They won’t break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then that we will see the rising of the moon.]

Read More

Will we ever be: 'A Nation Once Again ?'

[- "A nation?" says Bloom. "A Nation is the same people living in the same place."
- "By God, then," says Ned, laughing, "if that’s so I’m a Nation for I’m living in the same place for the past five years."
So of course everyone had the laugh at Bloom and says he, trying to muck out of it:
"Or also living in different places."]

~James Joyce, Ulysses~

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, again cranked up the pressure on Dissident Republican Groups in Derry and Northern Ireland. In a stinging attack and rebuke of their activities, he accused them of effectively ’Ghettoising’ areas of Derry City.

"They have effectively tried to turn parts of Derry into a slum."
~Martin McGuinness~

Republicanism’s chief negotiator during the peace process was recently informed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) of alleged potential threats on his life by Real IRA. However, given the level of criticism being brandished at the Deputy First Minister (N.I.) from within grass roots Republicanism, he is facing up quite bullishly to these criticisms, as expressed in a recent interview with the ‘Derry Journal'. He also remains adamant that Sinn Fein’s road map towards a United Ireland is still on track! He dismissed the recent upsurge in Dissident activity as,

“self-serving”

and described them as

“imposters”

,
who’s main goal was to hijack the ideals of Republicanism. He dismissed their claims of being the true exponents of Irish Republican Ideology as mere:

“flags of convenience for criminality and drug dealing.”

Mr McGuinness is due to attend a public meeting in Derry this Thursday, as principle speaker, and it is hoped that recent rumblings of discontent will not over shadow the planned topics up for discussion!

"Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations. The Defenders of this Realm have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! — they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace!"

~ Padraig Pearse~

Read More