{"id":404060,"date":"2026-04-17T21:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/404060\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T21:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:46:09","slug":"patrick-odonovan-pledges-hands-off-approach-to-media-after-making-hames-of-protest-comments-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/404060\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick O\u2019Donovan pledges hands-off approach to media after making \u2018hames\u2019 of protest comments \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Communications Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> has said he should have phrased his comments on media coverage of recent fuel protests<\/a> differently in hindsight and admitted he \u201cmade a hames\u201d of what he was trying to say.<\/p>\n

The Minister told Tipp FM last week that he would be \u201cexamining\u201d coverage of the blockades \u201cfrom a balance point of view\u201d. He suggested there had been insufficient coverage of people who disagreed with protesters\u2019 methods and said RT\u00c9<\/a>\u2019s coverage of the blockade at Whitegate fuel refinery was \u201calmost like a flare\u201d in drawing attention to it. <\/p>\n

The National Union of Journalists<\/a> described the comments as \u201csinister and deeply disturbing\u201d, while T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris, the leader of O\u2019Donovan\u2019s Fine Gael party, said he believed there was \u201cno need for any sort of formal review\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking to RT\u00c9\u2019s News At One on Friday, O\u2019Donovan said he could have used \u201ca better formula of words\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that we can all take from the previous 10 days is that we should all be able to look back and say, \u2018Is there anything that I would have done differently?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn hindsight, I should have used the word engage, chat to, talk to, which is exactly what I did on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I met Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n, they told me that they have upwards of 200 different complaints with regard to media coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t overstep the mark, but what I think I did do is I probably made a hames of what I was trying to say, which was that at the end of the day it is very important in a democracy that everybody\u2019s voice is heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Patrick O\u2019Donovan not seeking media coverage review of fuel protests despite suggestion he wouldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Minister confirmed through a spokesman on Tuesday that he was not seeking a review. <\/p>\n

On Friday, he set out his track record on media freedom, including schemes related to local democracy, court reporting and Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n itself, adding that he \u201crespects the role they have\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not the actions I think of somebody who wants to interfere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Communications Patrick O\u2019Donovan has said he should have phrased his comments on media coverage of recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3584,171749,61,60,43,6232,6085],"class_list":["post-404060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-coimisiun-na-mean","tag-fuel-protests","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-patrick-o-donovan","tag-rte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404060","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=404060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}