{"id":397005,"date":"2026-04-13T23:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/397005\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T23:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:33:10","slug":"odonovans-comments-on-media-coverage-of-fuel-protest-sinister-and-deeply-disturbing-nuj-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/397005\/","title":{"rendered":"O\u2019Donovan\u2019s comments on media coverage of fuel protest \u2018sinister and deeply disturbing\u2019, NUJ says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Union of Journalists has described as \u201csinister and deeply disturbing\u201d the call by the Minister for Media and Communications Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> for a Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n review of media coverage of the recent nationwide fuel protests.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Monday O\u2019Donovancriticised the media coverage of the blockades last week, and suggested an RT\u00c9<\/a> report was used to encourage protesters to show up to Whitegate oil<\/a> refinery in Co Cork<\/a>. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan said he was concerned about \u201cbalance\u201d in some of the coverage, including some of the content posted online. <\/p>\n

\u201cIronically, it was being reported on RT\u00c9 News on one particular evening that there was nobody at Whitegate, and it was almost like a flare went up \u2013 you know: \u2018There\u2019s nobody here at Whitegate at the moment, come on down.\u2019 Of course, they started gathering and the rest is history,\u201d O\u2019Donovan told the Tipp Today programme on Tipp FM. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that I will be doing is examining it as well from a media and coverage point of view. Particularly social media<\/a>, and particularly from a balance point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added he didn\u2019t see \u201ctoo much\u201d coverage of people who agreed with the protest but didn\u2019t agree with the methods that it was using. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of businesses that were at risk of going under because of the supply chain, I didn\u2019t see too many of those people get air time. A lot of hospital appointments were missed. I didn\u2019t hear too many doctors being asked how things were in particular hospitals.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Minister said he agreed that a lot of people protesting had genuine grievances. <\/p>\n

He said it was \u201cimportant to have a fuel protest, but what was not important was a fuel blockade\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a place for anger and frustration,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think that the place for anger and frustration was to deny chicken in Co Limerick meal, to deny cattle feed, to deny people hospital appointments, to deny people the right to the access to Dublin Airport\u201d. . <\/p>\n

The Minister said people have a right to protest, \u201cand sometimes I feel like protesting myself,\u201d but he was against a situation where unelected demonstrators were telling pregnant women if they did or did not have the right to travel to a maternity hospital after their waters had broken.<\/p>\n

In a separate interview on WLR FM, the Minister confirmed that he planned to raise his concerns about the fairness and balance of some media coverage with regulator Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n<\/a>. <\/p>\n

NUJ assistant general secretary S\u00e9amus Dooley said he found the Minister\u2019s comments \u201csinister and deeply disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Media Minister is not a bystander but is in a position to influence the allocation of funds, the approval of commercial radio licenses and overall policy on broadcasting,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is not his role to dictate to the independent regulator or to apply pressure on media organisations. RT\u00c9 is a public service broadcaster not a State broadcaster and is independently regulated in the interests of democracy. You cannot have a \u2018slightly independent\u2019 public service broadcaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the past week many journalists were abused by protesters, including key personnel involved in organising blockades\u201d. Dooley said it was \u201cironic\u201d that O\u2019Donovan \u201chas decided to join the ranks of the anti mainstream media critics in his verbal onslaught at professional broadcasters simply because he disagreed with the arguments and actions of the subject of legitimate news coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no place for Trumpian ad hominem attacks on journalists and the Minister\u2019s comments have caused genuine concern,\u201d Dooley said. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Social Democrats<\/a> TD Sin\u00e9ad Gibney<\/a> described O\u2019Donovan\u2019s interview as \u201cjaw dropping\u201d and \u201csinister.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a transparent, and frankly pathetic, attempt to defray blame for the Government\u2019s own botched approach, not just to the protests \u2013 but to the cost-of-living<\/a> crisis, which has endured now for years,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also a dangerous attempt by Government to exert editorial control over the media in an attempt to muzzle it. A cornerstone of any strong democracy is a free media. Any attempt by the Government to chip away at this will be fiercely resisted.\u201d<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 said it had no comment to make on O\u2019Donovan\u2019s claim about its coverage of Whitegate oil refinery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Union of Journalists has described as \u201csinister and deeply disturbing\u201d the call by the Minister for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3584,46,943,171749,42,43,6000,6232,6085,148695,58,1419,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-397005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-coimisiun-na-mean","9":"tag-cork","10":"tag-cost-of-living","11":"tag-fuel-protests","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-oil","15":"tag-patrick-o-donovan","16":"tag-rte","17":"tag-sinead-gibney","18":"tag-social-media","19":"tag-social-democrats","20":"tag-top-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topnews","23":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}