NI: Censorship (1)
01 November 1993
Amidst revelations that the British government has been engaged in secret contact and dialogue with Martin McGuinness and other members of Sinn Fein, the debate on censorship is intensifying throughout Ireland. Regarding the North, Prime Minister John Major has ordered a review of the rules governing the ban on interviews with proscribed organisations and with representatives of Sinn Fein (a legal political party) which was introduced by Douglas Hurd on 19th October 1988. Opposition to the ban is widespread among journalists working in electronic media and Chief Executive of C4, Michael Grade, has approached the BBC, ITV and Sky News with a view to lobbying former NI Secretary State and current National Heritage Secretary Sir Peter Brooke to end the ban. Grade has described the ban as "one of the most ludicrous outrageous and pointless restrictions of free speech ever imposed on a democracy". Major's review was sparked off by his objections to the practice of actors' voices being used to dub interviews with Gerry Adams, the President of Sinn Fein, and it is expected to result in a tightening of the ban. In addition to this, the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, signed an exclusion order against Adams to prevent him visiting London. While many reports have assumed that the exclusion was a response to the Shankill bombing the order was in fact signed two days prior to this event.
In the South, the Minister for Arts and Culture, Michael D. Higgins, is coming under strong pressure to repeal Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act which bans interviews with representatives of Sinn Fein and proscribed organisations altogether. Higgins, a sociologist at University College Galway, has ordered a review of the operation of Section 31 under which an annually renewable order is made in January. The weight of opinion against Section 31 is expressed forcibly in a new book, Let in the Light: Censorship Secrecy and Democracy (Brandon Books, ISBN 0 86322 173 4, Price £7.95). The book is a record of speeches made to the Let in the Light conference held in Dublin in January 1993. It includes sections on business secrecy, political censorship, censorship and the arts, and publishing.