{"id":6742,"date":"2013-04-08T14:30:34","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T14:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/?p=6742"},"modified":"2013-04-08T14:57:40","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T14:57:40","slug":"a-student-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/a-student-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"A Student Voice!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"write-for-an-focal-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This year has been an interesting one in terms of media outlets in Ireland. The question of censorship is one that has been brought up by several incidents in recent weeks and it\u2019s interesting to read about the various attitudes towards what can and can\u2019t be published, whether in a physical format or online.<\/p>\n

Many people have heard of the recent spunout.ie controversy, in which attention was drawn to an article about threesomes. An article which was written around three years ago and was displayed on the spunout.ie website. The issue came to prominence when the Sunday independent published a front page story on the existence of the piece giving advice to teenagers about threesomes. Despite TD Michelle Mulherin complaining to Health Minister James O\u2019 Reilly about the article, and going on the record as saying that \u201cinformation is encouragement\u201d when it came to threesomes, the article remains on the website. However it has been altered to account for some of the complaints about the original article. This controversy, which brought up the issue of censorship in the media, received a lot of public and governmental attention. A second controversy, which has not impacted on the mainstream public sphere to such a great extent, is the current and ongoing conflict between the Iona institute and several student led media outlets. Namely the \u2018University Times\u2019, a paper funded by the Trinity College Students\u2019 Union and \u2018Trinity News\u2019 another student newspaper funded partly by a grant from the Dublin University Publications Committee. These two student media outlets have both received legal letters from representatives of David Quinn. \u2018University Times\u2019 received the legal letters for their publication of an opinion piece criticizing Mr. Quinn and the Iona institute. In that case, Mr.Quinn acted to protect his reputation as he is entitled to do. \u2018Trinity News\u2019 then covered the story of the legal issues which arose between Mr. Quinn and \u2018University Times\u2019 and received a legal letter for doing so. It seems less clear where the damage to reputation arose in this second scenario as this article wasn\u2019t about the Iona institute but was instead covering a news story.<\/p>\n

What is the Iona Institute? According to their official website, \u2018The Iona Institute promotes the place of marriage and religion in society. We defend the continued existence of publicly-funded denominational schools. We also promote freedom of conscience and religion. The Iona Institute is headed by religious and social affairs commentator, David Quinn.\u2019 Going beyond their own definition and reading through the documents and policies of the Iona institute, particularly the Submission to the Convention on the Constitution on Article 41.3.1: Marriage, the stated aim of promoting \u2018the place of marriage\u2019 is in reality promoting the place of only some types of marriage, i.e. that of a heterosexual man and woman. The reason why this type of marriage is advocated for by the Iona institute as being \u2018unique\u2019 and worthy of protection is because \u2018Every society has an interest in encouraging mothers and fathers to raise their own children together\u2019.\u00a0 In a second statement we are told, \u2018Every society in history has developed the institution of marriage mainly for that purpose\u2019. \u00a0The \u2018promotion\u2019 of this type of marriage and the \u2018family unit\u2019 created in this type of marriage, results necessarily in the dismissal of other types of marriage and families, such as single parent families or families in which the parents are the same sex. From personal experience, and from a general viewpoint that I and many others share, this is something which is offensive. There are many ways that people live happily together. If this way doesn\u2019t conform to what is perceived to be \u2018normal\u2019 they should not be dismissed for this. It seems wrong to me that human beings who have the exact same motivations as I, to be loved, to have a family, to have security, to be able to express myself, are told every day of their lives that they are not entitled to these basic human rights and needs because the person they love does not \u2018conform\u2019 to someone else\u2019s idea of what the ideal \u2018Marriage\u2019 should be. Marriage between same-sex couples is something which is still not recognised by the Irish state (One of our writers covers this in an opinion piece on page 27). The fact that our state, a state of which we are all a part does not grant rights to all of us equally, is something that strikes me as being something that is intrinsically wrong within the status quo. The Iona institute disagrees. This is reflected by their own literature and can be seen in the video that they produced entitled \u2018the case for man and woman marriage\u2019. A video that I and many others found offensive, given my belief, which I am entitled to express, that same-sex couples who love each other and wish to express their love through the form of marriage and building a family together should have that right, in the same as any heterosexual Irish citizen already has that right. Many were denied that right to expression in that the video, when it appeared on YouTube didn\u2019t allow comments under it. The Iona website doesn\u2019t provide an adequate platform in which dissent can be expressed. Mainstream media outlets are not paying this issue enough attention. It is to student media outlets that we as students must turn in order to express our views.<\/p>\n

The Iona institute of course is one that has the assets to actually follow through with their threats of legal action. This publically available information can be accessed quite easily through their website donation page where they display their registered charity number ; 17347 (as a registered charity they qualify for tax exemptions) and their company number 424940. A quick look at the Revenue website will reveal that the Iona institutes company is in fact called \u2018Lolek Limited\u2019 (a name which is not displayed on their website). This is where publically accessible information becomes interesting. As of their last financial statement, they had \u20ac277,545 in cash reserves. Certainly a greater amount of income than a student\u2019s union legal costs reserve. Meaning that the Iona institute (or Lolek Limited) is in a better financial position to pay for legal costs than a student publication, based on empirical and publically available evidence. Would it be completely incorrect to say that in defending their reputation a harmful knock on effect is that they also shut down dissenting voices in student media?\u00a0 Which as I explained before is the one of the few outlets in which students can exercise their right to express dissent to the Iona institute.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to a final question, why is it important to have student media? Why is freedom of expression important? It seems in general as though the person with the largest team of lawyers, or indeed the biggest bank balance can now disproportionately decide what can and can\u2019t be expressed. This is particularly harmful given that student media is so underfunded. Realistically even one law suit can destroy a student media outlet, therefore even the threat of legal action is enough to curtail student media outlet from fully expressing an opinion. Resulting in the loss of a voice which is used to express what students truly feel about certain issues. Destroying a platform for expression and change which can be vital to protecting the rights of the vulnerable and marginalised in society. Destroying a means of sharing and accessing information, of expressing a viewpoint. \u00a0This is something that shouldn\u2019t be allowed to just happen because it\u2019s easier and less trouble to say nothing at all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lorna Bogue, Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

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This year has been an interesting one in terms of media outlets in Ireland. The question of censorship is one that has been brought up by several incidents in recent weeks and it\u2019s interesting to read about the various attitudes towards what can and can\u2019t be published, whether in a physical format or online. Many […]<\/p>\n

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