Media backlash to Mary Robinson’s handshake with former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet showed that some commentators were now “ready to exploit the slightest weakness” and the era of uncritical coverage was gone, an official warned in 1995.
The then president of Ireland visited Chile, Argentina and Brazil in March 1995.
The Chilean leg of the State visit proved particularly controversial after Mrs Robinson’s encounter with the former dictator. Pinochet, who died in 2006, was the head of Chile’s military government from 1974 until 1990. During his dictatorial reign, many opponents of his regime were tortured and killed.
The visit elicited extensive negative media coverage – about the handshake, as well as the overall itinerary and cost.
In a briefing note dated April 4th, 1995, Joe Hayes, an official in the Department of Foreign Affairs, wrote: “From a media viewpoint the coverage of the recent visits to South America suggests that the Irish media are no longer content with bland uncritical coverage of the ceremonial of State visits abroad.
“The several lengthy (and occasionally hostile) conversations which I had with journalists over the duration of the South American visit persuades me that, when it comes to the President and her visits abroad, there are now some singularly ill-disposed media commentators who are ready to exploit the slightest weakness.”
Mr Hayes added that officials needed to be prepared for “press interest which will focus, in a critical manner, on the costs of these visits, their purpose, the planning behind them and the itinerary”.
He said, upon reflecting on the coverage of the South American visit, “the Áras, and the Department, are fortunate that these three visits did not produce even more extensive and negative coverage”.
“You should be aware, for example, that RTÉ’s main phone-in programmes – the Gay Byrne show, the Pat Kenny Show and Liveline – received a significant number of calls criticising the visits and their planning. As far as we can judge from our contacts in local radio the same broad picture was replicated in this important sector.”
Mr Hayes noted that “despite the considerable significance of The Irish Times as the paper of record, it is RTÉ’s coverage which will ultimately determine popular perceptions of an event like a State visit”.
He wrote: “If RTÉ can be kept on-side, whatever may be written in The Irish Times can be heavily counterbalanced by the packages on the main evening RTÉ news bulletins and the reports on Morning Ireland. In the case of the visits to Argentina, Chile and Brazil it was Eileen Whelan’s reports, particularly her damaging Morning Ireland interview from São Paulo, which ultimately turned the tide of opinion very decisively.
“Up until then it was possible to respond to the negative publicity from Argentina and Chile. The Morning Ireland interview, however, prompted the attentions of the Pat Kenny show and from there on we were, to put it mildly, attempting to bolt the doors on a decidedly vacant stable.”
In relation to the handshake between Mrs Robinson and Pinochet, previous reports stated that an RTÉ camera crew covering the trip had been ordered by Chilean authorities to leave the room before the handshake – at her request.
Mrs Robinson subsequently said it was “with dismay” she discovered that the former Chilean dictator was present at the banquet held in her honour by the president of Chile.
In an interview with RTÉ in April 1995, Mrs Robinson said: “People should understand that … I am not an individual. I am the president of Ireland. I was the guest of President Frei [the democratically elected president of Chile] just as Pinochet was. I had no expectation that I was going to meet Pinochet, and it was with great dismay that I saw that he was attending the dinner … I did not show any pleasure in meeting him.”