Voltaire is attributed with stating “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” Whether those exact words expelled from his lips or not, it is the concise expression of the Enlightenment. Freedom of thought and expression are the most cherished of human rights and as such hold a place of esteem in modern society. Since the Fifth Century BC the spectre of censorship has prowled around those who believe in freedom of expression. The term was derived from the office of Censor, the individual who would enforce the collective form of morality and religion on the Roman world, any form of dissent was to be stamped out ruthlessly. This would also be seen in the Grecian world where Socrates was sentenced to death for his failure to comply. Euripides would express his noble belief in freedom by stating, “Who neither can nor will, may hold his peace. What can be more just in a State than this?”
Even modern writers condemn the use of censorship. Shaw famously stated that a society with such precepts was stagnant and “the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.” Orwell would go further with his view on liberty, saying, “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” We are a nation that has been taught to abhor censorship in all its forms especially when it comes to the media. Every nation needs a media that is able to express itself without hindrance or threat. That is what we have at least been taught to expect and what the media would itself espouse and defend. The most repugnant use of censorship is the secret type. The secret injunction: that which tries to or prevents the reporting of the issue at hand.
These have become so prevalent in Northern Ireland that there are more here than in the whole of the rest of the United Kingdom. To understand the significance of that, the population figures have to be placed alongside the fact. Northern Ireland has a population of 1.8 million next to the UK figure of 62 million. An area which consists of 2.9% of populace has more secret injunctions than 97% of the population. This is a national disgrace and led the high profile barrister and TUV leader, Jim Allistair to state “The mystery and secrecy surrounding injunctive relief is generally not healthy, nor does it sit comfortably with the transparency expectations of a modern society.” Indeed, in a supposed free and modern society should we have a secret censorship law that protects those just because of their wealth? In Northern Ireland politicians guilty of the grosses hypocrisy and financial scandal have these facts hidden from the public. Entertainment figures hide their obsession with children all because of the antiquated legal legislation that can be used to hide such facts. All of this is bewailed by the media.
This being the case, it will come as a shock and total absurdity that the Ulster News received a secret censorship threat within the last week. Last Week we published an Article about the journalism of Irish News columnist, Alison Morris. Miss Morris has taken exception at a number of terms used in the said article: “hypocrite”, “fantasy” and “OC”. The correspondence also contained a falsehood and a sinister observation for which we will be seeking a public a apology.
We will deal with a number of issues raised by Miss Morris’ legal correspondence.
First, the issue of the secret nature of the correspondence itself. At no time did we enter into any form of contract with Miss Morris or her legal team, nor is the correspondence the subject of any legal injunction not to publish, so we will publish it in its entirety.
Secondly, the issue of Miss Morris’ complaints:
1. The use by Ulster News of the term “hypocritical bigot” to describe Miss Morris. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hypocritical is “behaving in a way that suggests one has higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case.” Miss Morris on the 3rd of August 2013, appeared in the Stubbs Gazette over her financial matters. Within a number of weeks of her being hauled thought the courts, she was writing about people who were before the courts on financial issues. In the said article, she targets the individual due to his political beliefs and also makes a personal comment about the appearance of the defendant in the case, based on a rumour. Due to the said facts we stand by the use of the initial adjectives in question.
2. The use of the term “OC” to describe her editor is no different from the use of supremo or don to describe a boss. Would Miss Morris claim we were implying she was a member of the mafia if we would had have used the term don? We stand over the initial term.
3. The use of the term “fantasy storytelling”: Miss Morris authored an article in which she claimed that rockets capable of taking out a helicopter had been found in South Armagh. She also states that these had used technology from the Middle East. This was not the case, these were simple homemade mortars, which can be seen from the photographs taken at the scene and the police assessment. The claims of Middle Eastern connections were not true, yet Miss Morris published this as fact.
4. Miss Morris’ legal team also makes the fictitious claim that Ulster News breached her privacy by publishing her address. At no time did we publish her address but stated that someone with the name Alison Morris had appeared in the debtor’s mag Stubbs Gazette. We published the name, region and amount owed but we redacted her address. In fact, her address was released by the Northern Ireland Court Service and appeared in Stubbs Gazette due to her non-payment of bills. Any issues with her address now being in the public domain should therefore be taken up with the said parties.
Ulster News looks on this as a cynical attempt by Miss Morris to silence us over the fact that we have exposed her as someone who has been through the courts because of financial matters and is still using her position to write about others who have been embroiled in the same process. Is this not a conflict of interest? The question also has to be asked: was her employer aware of this and if so why did they deem it fit for her to write on such matters? That fact that Miss Morris would target the Ulster News with a secret censor attempt over remarks that come under fair comment, and also to use completely fictitious allegations in order to silence us, is unsavoury and sinister. This placed next to the fact that she is a journalist makes it even more incredulous. Journalists may one day be looking for help to overthrow such injunctions, how can they do so when they themselves have employed such tactics.
“It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do”. Edmund Burke
ULSTER NEWS 