Charlie Bird and our favourite newspaper

national | arts and media | other press Tuesday February 01, 2005 10:58 by Rosebud

Charlie Bird calls for debate on print media

"Before Christmas, an RTÉ colleague told the news reporter that Ireland on Sunday had asked a photographer to follow Bird for a number of days, to see if he was in a new relationship.

When he challenged the newspaper, he was told he "was basically fair game, that they had picked up what they called 'tittle-tattle' on the street"."

RTÉ correspondent Charlie Bird has called for a debate on the direction the print media is taking, following revelations that he had been stalked by a photographer. Alison Healy reports.

Before Christmas, an RTÉ colleague told the news reporter that Ireland on Sunday had asked a photographer to follow Bird for a number of days, to see if he was in a new relationship.

When he challenged the newspaper, he was told he "was basically fair game, that they had picked up what they called 'tittle-tattle' on the street".

Speaking on RTÉ's Liveline programme, Bird said there was "absolutely no truth whatsoever in this story", yet he found himself on the receiving end of having someone following him "and it's something that's not very nice".

He said the newspaper carried a correction on the following Sunday to say that he wasn't in a new relationship. The journalist and his wife separated about seven years ago.

Then, last Saturday, the Evening Herald ran a front page story with the headline Shock at Bird's Love Nest Probe. It quoted Bird as saying he was in a new relationship but Bird said this was not true and he had never said that.

"Charlie Bird has no love nest. Charlie Bird has a home where he lives and I try to keep that private," he said.

"I actually believe that there are times in one's life when you have to stand up and say 'enough is enough'.

"And the idea that I was being followed by a newspaper photographer before Christmas, it is the most awful sensation."

If he were to go for a coffee with a work colleague, would the colleague now be fair game, Mr Bird asked.

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission gave people a form of redress but there was no equivalent for the print media.

The newspapers could write what they wanted "and I believe that within journalism, within the political system, there has to be some form of a debate about the need for at least a rowing back from where the media is going at the moment".

The Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey supported Charlie Bird yesterday and said there should be some form of redress for people whose privacy was being invaded.

Before the 2003 All-Ireland, he said a newspaper threatened to run a certain story about his private life unless he spoke to the newspaper.

"If I didn't make a comment, they were going to run with a particular story about, obviously, my personal life. And if I was to make a comment, they wouldn't run with that story. They would run with what I would say," he said.

Carey said the newspaper claimed his ex-wife had talked to the press and said certain things, yet that had not happened at all.

"Someone must answer for telling lies and making up stories," Carey said.

Also on Liveline, Séamus Dooley, National Union of Journalists Irish secretary, said the reports surrounding Charlie Bird were "cheap and nasty" and could not be defended.

"I believe that public figures have a right to a private life," he said.

"There's no justification for intrusions of the type that was described by Charlie Bird."

He said he was particularly concerned about the trends in Ireland on Sunday, where fictional bylines were used in cases where stories could not be supported by the facts.

There was no comment available from Ireland on Sunday yesterday. A spokeswoman said no one would be available until today.

In December, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said he favoured a voluntary press council, backed by statutory powers, to sanction publications that breach privacy guidelines. Without the statutory powers, it would be like "a toothless dog", he said.

Yesterday, a spokesman for Mr McDowell said the proposal for the press council was part of the Defamation Bill that was currently being drawn up by the Department of Justice.

© The Irish Times