{"id":477552,"date":"2026-05-10T09:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T09:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/477552\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T09:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T09:42:13","slug":"theyre-nice-people-but-is-public-funding-for-news-media-its-saviour-or-threatening-its-freedom-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/477552\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They\u2019re nice people but …\u2019 Is public funding for news media its saviour or threatening its freedom? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

State funding can raise tricky questions for the independence of the media<\/a>, according to observers in the media itself, academia<\/a> and politics<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIs it okay for news media to take money from the Government? Instinctively, the answer is no,\u201d says Tom Felle, former head of the journalism department at the University of Galway and a professor of journalism at the college.<\/p>\n

But such a stance doesn\u2019t reflect the reality society finds itself in, he adds. <\/p>\n

Advertising revenue that once funded independent local and national media has migrated to social media<\/a> platforms, creating a crisis not just for journalism, but for liberal democracy generally, with a sharp decline in coverage of courts, local councils and other areas of public life in recent decades.<\/p>\n

In response, the Government, through the media regulator, Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n (CnaM), is now channelling significant sums of money to local and national media to support news reporting.<\/p>\n

In the most recent funding round, announced in January, more than \u20ac15 million was contained in funding offers for 2026, with CnaM allocating money that comes to it by way of annual budgetary decisions by the Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a perfect solution, but it is a solution,\u201d says Felle, one of a number of media experts engaged to assess funding applications for the schemes run by CnaM. <\/p>\n

Although the final decision is made by the regulator, in practice the decisions of the assessors are only reviewed to ensure they comply with such matters as process and governance, says R\u00f3n\u00e1n \u00d3 Domhnaill, media development commissioner with the regulator.<\/p>\n

The latest funding offers come under a variety of schemes, including news reporting, local government reporting, court reporting and a \u201cdigital transformation\u201d scheme. <\/p>\n

About \u20ac3 million is ring-fenced for the commercial radio sector and the same again for Virgin Media Television to support additional current affairs coverage.<\/p>\n

Mediahuis Ireland, publisher of the Irish Independent, the Herald, and 11 regional titles, and The Irish Times Group, publisher of The Irish Times (though The Irish Times itself has not submitted an application for funding), the Irish Examiner, the Echo and six regional titles, each received funding offers of more than \u20ac1.2 million.<\/p>\n

Other recipients of offers included Iconic Media Group, a UK-based owner of Irish regional titles and digital sites (\u20ac236,940); the Irish Farmers Journal (\u20ac94,000); Hot Press (\u20ac144,811); Gay Community News (\u20ac14,107); TheJournal.ie (\u20ac54,833); South Belfast News\/Andytown News\/North Belfast News (\u20ac70,000); the Bauer Media Group \u2013 owner of Newstalk, 98FM, Today FM, and other stations \u2013 (\u20ac382,074); and Kilkenny-based KCLR 96FM (\u20ac107,369).<\/p>\n

The regulator targets sectors identified as requiring support in the 2022 report of the Future Media Commission, according to Jane Suiter, a professor of political communications at the School of Communications in Dublin City University.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou couldn\u2019t have the Government giving money directly to the media, so you have it going via the Coimisi\u00fan,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo it all rests on how independent is Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ProfessorProfessor Jane Suiter does not believe the new funding arrangements need necessarily damage trust. Photo Sam Boal\/Irish Times <\/p>\n

Because it is public money, the funding is subject to the laws and regulations that govern the granting of public money to private companies and individuals. The money must be used for reporting that would not occur otherwise.<\/p>\n

Mostly the funding is used for extra staff to cover areas not already being covered. It is CnaM policy, according to \u00d3 Domhnaill, to direct much of the money into journalists\u2019 pockets. <\/p>\n

The media outlets are not allowed put the funded reporting behind a paywall and after a period all the work funded by CnaM is available via a portal on the regulator\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Suiter does not believe the new funding arrangements need necessarily damage trust in the independence of the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment funding for TV and radio has gone on for years,\u201d she says. \u201cDo people not trust RT\u00c9? They do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key issue is that CnaM be seen as transparent and fair, she says.<\/p>\n

For both Suiter and Felle, any danger that may exist from introducing Government funding is outweighed by the danger of Ireland developing \u201cnews deserts\u201d, as has happened in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cCities and towns and states [in the US] in some case no longer have any media, or are down to practically none, with maybe one left,\u201d says Felle. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is certainly a real danger at local level … in Ireland, of news deserts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The development of areas of public life, including local democracy and court sittings, where the level of reporting has become sharply reduced, is a trend that countries across Europe are determined to resist, he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou lose the capacity for the public to discuss the issues, whatever they are,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat replaces that, at the benign level, is rumour, but at the more sinister level [is] far-right capture of areas and … really serious impacts on the ability of democracy to function.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the aims of the CnaM funding is to combat misinformation by funding professional journalism, says \u00d3 Domhnaill.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Media regulator faces 33 appeals over broadcasting levy hikeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He points out that misinformation is \u201ca difficult thing to solve\u201d but one tool to prevent it is to \u201ctry to flood the market with news that is factually checked, that is done by a journalist on the ground, that has an editor\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

Mediahuis, one of the largest publishers of regional and local news in Ireland, says most of the funding it has received from CnaM is used to meet the costs of employing additional journalists at a local level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have made it explicit \u2013 and An Coimisi\u00fan has accepted \u2013 that our journalism will always be entirely independent,\u201d it says in a statement.<\/p>\n

Within The Irish Times Group, the decision to seek funding rests with each group publication. <\/p>\n

The editor of The Irish Times, Ruadh\u00e1n Mac Cormaic, says the title had chosen to date not to seek funding from Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n or the Global Ireland Media Challenge Fund, a Department of Foreign Affairs scheme that supports coverage of international affairs. <\/p>\n

\u201cNews media face formidable commercial challenges. The weakening of the business model for local journalism in particular raises real questions about access to information and scrutiny of public institutions \u2013 two pillars of the democratic system,\u201d says Mac Cormaic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the State can play a role indirectly in supporting public-interest journalism and that can be done in a way that preserves editorial independence and the perception of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aont\u00fa leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn is among those with concerns about the potential downsides of public funding of the media.<\/p>\n

\"AontúAont\u00fa leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn has expressed concerns. Photograph: Stephen Collins\/Collins Photos <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a worry that if the media becomes dependent on State funding, it may give governments subtle influence over editorial direction or risk creating an environment of soft censorship,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Aont\u00fa, he says, believes in a strong and robust media, but State funding \u201ccould have a chilling effect in relation to free political discourse in this country\u201d.<\/p>\n

Among those who received funding offers in January is the small independent publication, the Dublin InQuirer. It successfully applied for financial support to hire two reporters and conduct a particular project, resulting in three respective offers of \u20ac47,895, \u20ac43,495, and \u20ac12,400. <\/p>\n

\"SamSam Tranum, editor of The Dublin InQuirer. Photo: Bryan O\u2019Brien\/The Irish Times<\/p>\n

A similar application was made last year, and made use of, but the publication has decided not to take up all of the 2026 offer and instead use CnaM funding for one reporter and the special project.<\/p>\n

The reason for this, according to editor Sam Tranum, is concern about the effect of too much reliance on CnaM funding as against producing material readers are willing to pay to access.<\/p>\n

In order to build sustainable journalism \u201cwe need to have our independent income streams and the best one to have is subscribers\u201d, says Tranum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the money is coming from subscribers, we are serving readers and producing stuff they want to read \u2013 and it is like a virtuous cycle and our interests align with our readers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially he believed CnaM funding would be a good fit for his publication, but then he found that larger competitors were using Government funding to produce reporting that was in direct competition with what the InQuirer was doing, and making it freely available online.<\/p>\n

\n

I can see how somebody might naturally self-censor<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Sam Tranum<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last year, Tranum wrote a letter to CnaM, criticising the effect of the regulator\u2019s funding scheme on his publication. He told The Irish Times that he said in his letter to the commission that while their funding had many merits, he would prefer \u201cif they didn\u2019t exist\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very nice people and it is well run … but the end result is in the medium to long term they are undermining our ability to be a sustainable business based on competition and also funding competition against us where there wasn\u2019t any before,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Tranum believes there is always a risk that journalists who are being funded by the Government or through grants will end up allowing that fact influence their work.<\/p>\n

This may occur because their focus is on pleasing the grant-giving body rather than the reader. But it could also affect reporting in other ways. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can see how somebody might naturally self-censor because they\u2019re worried that they\u2019re going to apply [for a] grant, they might apply for it and not get it … That just seems like a natural thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00d3 Domhnaill is far from dismissive of the concerns some express about State funding of the media. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn an ideal situation, support for the industry would not be necessary,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut support is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State funding can raise tricky questions for the independence of the media, according to observers in the media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[49,9,10,34888,18,13,14,3428,6,19,17,179599,11,12,15,16,67948,5,5287,50,1181,167951,1114,69406,7,8,33653],"class_list":{"0":"post-477552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-aontu","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-coimisiun-na-mean","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-government","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-irish-independent","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-mediahuis","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-newstalk-radio","27":"tag-peadar-toibin","28":"tag-rte","29":"tag-ruadhan-mac-cormaic","30":"tag-social-media","31":"tag-today-fm","32":"tag-top-stories","33":"tag-topstories","34":"tag-virgin-media"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116549631771991774","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}