The taoiseach has no clothes
Well, this naked Cowen picture thing has gone from amusing puff-piece into a text-book case of government overreaction, stifling of free speech and all round , weapons-grade political fuck up.
The story so far (as I understand it):
- Paintings of a naked (or nearly so) Brian Cowen are placed in two Dublin galleries by an unknown guerilla artist (who is now being pursued by the police).
- RTE, the national broadcaster, runs a news story on the paintings in one of its bulletins.
- The taoiseach’s press office goes spa and demands that RTE pull the piece forthwith and apologise for running it.
- RTE, recalling suddenly that they are not an independent broadcaster, but an organ of the state (the arsehole, apparently), instantly cave, pull the piece and issue a grovelling apology.
- The Irish blogosphere goes mental.
So not only does our taoiseach have no clothes, he also appears to have no sense of humour or a clue as to how a democracy is supposed to work. He and his trained(?) media monkeys certainly have no conception of how the Streisand Effect is about to come and destroy what’s left of his reputation.
The useless dangly bit of flesh that runs this country.
Update: Buy the t-shirt.
Update II:
Bunreacht na hEireann:
Article 40:6
1° The State guarantees liberty for the exercise of the following rights, subject to public order and morality:
The right of the citizens to express freely their convictions and opinions.
The education of public opinion being, however, a matter of such grave import to the common good, the State shall endeavour to ensure that organs of public opinion, such as the radio, the press, the cinema, while preserving their rightful liberty of expression, including criticism of Government policy, shall not be used to undermine public order or morality or the authority of the State.
The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.
Two things here:
1: Unless Cowen can argue that these pictures, or more to the point, RTE’s report about them undermined public order, morality or the authority of the State (as opposed to the authority of Brian Cowen), then any actions to suppress the pictures and reports about them are unconstitutional.
2: The Irish Constitution makes ” the publication or utterance of blasphemous…matter” an offence. I shouldn’t be surprised, given it was written by DeValera and John Charles McQuaid, but, seriously, does that have any place in the constitution of a democratic republic in the 21st Century?
Update III:
From Google News:
Update IV:
BBC News has the story.
Meanwhile, Green party government patsy Ciaran Cuffe says on Newstalk’s Right Hook that RTE probably shouldn’t have run the story. Why not, Deputy Cuffe?
Now, Vincent Browne is talking utter bollox about lingering camera shots causing offence by making it about Cowen’s belly. What a load of shite, Vincent.
The main thing I got out of the Hook piece is that though the paintings went up a couple of weeks ago and a complaint was made to the Gardai at that point – they didn’t seem to do anything about it until the Sunday Tribune broke the story at the weekend.
I also doubt that either the RHA or the National Gallery, which both feature lots of nudes, would have filed charges for “indecency” or “incitement to hatred”. This has the FF press office’s mucky gombeen fingerprints all over it.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I think we posted more or less simultaneously on this. Great minds, fools, and all that. Though you did manage to be more concise and add in YouTube links, damn you.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I like the new phrase – the press office “goes spa”! Shorter than going spare, and more evocative of the personalities involved..
March 25th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
@cerandor Yes, one added nicely to the other.
Though I have to say that reading the reports before seeing the pictures, I was expecting a far more offensive work of art. It’s a decent painting, ha. But I’d think that any public official (or news outlet) with half a brain would anticipate that public outcry over any (voluntary? idiotic?? constitutional?????) censorship would bring far more attention than a passing news story on a prank…
March 25th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Kalin: The censorship was definitely voluntary, completely idiotic, but not constitutional (because they weren’t blaspheming; if it had been a religious (read: imaginary) figure, then they’d have the full weight of the law and Bunreacht na hEireann down on their heads – which is an ass-backwards state of affairs).
March 25th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
ass-backwards… Agreed.
March 26th, 2009 at 6:48 am
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March 26th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
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