Madam, - I read Fionnuala O'Connor's column about the opening of the new RTÉ studios in Belfast (Opinion Analysis, July 10th) with considerable interest, primarily because of what she had to say about the much-rumoured role played by RTÉ's Northern Editor, Tommie Gorman, in facilitating talks between the DUP and Sinn Féin prior to the establishment of the new Belfast Executive.
Ms O'Connor suggests that the lessening of hostility to RTÉ from the DUP and Sinn Féin, represented at the event by Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, is (in part) "undoubtedly due to Gorman's behind-the-scenes role in helping the DUP in particular across the line into powersharing".
As your readers may know, Tommie Gorman's alleged role as a go-between or facilitator has been the subject of considerable speculation in the months since the Executive was set up, fuelled in no small measure by comments from former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, but denied by Mr Gorman himself.
Are we to take it from Ms O'Connor's confident assertion that the cat is now out of the bag, as it were - that Tommie Gorman has rescinded his denial or at least allowed it to wither on the vine? Since the allegations concerning him began to circulate we have had suggestions that another journalist played a significant role on behalf of DUP politicians in easing the resignation of the Rev Ian Paisley as First Minister.
If there is any truth in one or both of these stories, it seems to me that the implications for Irish journalism are far-reaching, not least for RTÉ, and that a debate among the media and between the media and wider Irish society is both desirable and imperative.
The traditional and valued principle that underlies all journalism everywhere is that reporters must never cross the line between observers and players; if that line is crossed, then the inevitable consequence is that reporting becomes fatally suspect, all the more so when the line-crossing is crossed secret and kept hidden from the public. The public needs to have trust in the integrity and independence of the media and their professionals, or civil society is undermined. In the country where I now reside and work, a journalist who crossed that line would face instant dismissal and the censure of his peers.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland have had, I believe, a terribly corrosive effect on Irish journalism, with reporters under constant pressure to take sides in the conflict and to shape their coverage according to the diktats of official, unofficial or self-censorship. The peace now enjoyed by Northern Ireland is to be cherished; but how ironic if its arrival has been heralded by an acceptance of the idea that journalists could and should be players as well.
The traditional standard needs to be protected and re-asserted. A debate about all this would be certainly healthy, but in the meantime RTÉ and Tommie Gorman badly need to clear the air. - Yours, etc,
ED MOLONEY, New York, USA.