Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Judge not, lest ye be judged - Matthew 7:1

Today was a bit of a strange day for me, some guy I knew as a kid was sent to prison for three months. The case was fairly high profile because it was an assault which left the victim with a ‘broken jaw, a fractured skull and severe traumatic brain injury.’ Here is RTE’s online report on the sentencing today.

What both of the accused did was wrong and they deserved to go to prison, but in my opinion they were exploited by certain sections of the media. Just look at the Irish Times headline (registration required) - ‘Men who attacked librarian get three months.’ The use of the word librarian really irks me. In my opinion it’s there to draw the same reaction as priest, charity worker or child. It puts that mental image of an old man with glasses carting a trolley full of books around a quiet corridor.

In this instance it particularly annoys me because the librarian started the initial scuffle which led to the assault by slapping one of his assailants’ brother on the back of the head after they laughed at him for falling off his bicycle.

What happened to the victim, Barry Duggan, was horrible. Nobody deserves something like that to happen to them. However Stephen Nugent and Dermot Cooper are two young men who I’m sure regret what they did. It’s not the media’s role to sway public opinion on whether the men were guilty or not, but to report on the facts as they happened and present them in a non-sensationalist way.

In that respect, I’m surprised and disappointed by the Irish Times’ use of the word librarian in the headline. Maybe I’m a little emotional about this, but this case is another in a long line of examples that highlights the blatant alcohol problem in our country. Rather than resorting to another ‘the youth of today are out of control’ angle here, we should remember that two young mens’ lives have been irrevocably changed after this incident. I think the judge was shortsighted in his criticism of the two men for their assault on a ‘puny man.’ Go out on the streets of Dublin any night of the week and you’ll see men and women, big or small, making mistakes that could have serious repercussions.

Obviously they should have thought of the consequences before they assaulted Barry Duggan, but the media should thread very carefully because how they report on the matter affects Stephen Nugent and Dermot Cooper’s future long after they have served their custodial sentence.

What about all the other assaults that happen every other day of the week? Why is it that the media choose to focus on certain cases because of the circumstances involved? More importantly what gives them the right?

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