Editorial: Case to be made for basic media law education to combat rise of the keyboard warrior

There is a case to be made for some sort of education or grounding in the basics of media law and civil discussion in society today.

Scurrilous attacks on politicians have made headlines recently, with local councillors this week meeting gardaí over how best to protect themselves from thugs and keyboard warriors. In some cases, the things politicians are criticised for are things they have little or no control over, and often there appears to be a degree of ignorance among many people of the role of their public representative.

The media are not unscathed from this particular segment either. Attacks on journalists are on the increase, and social media has become something of a wild west when it comes to what people are willing to say.

Editorial staff in this newspaper have in the past been subject to online and in-person abuse, as well as ill-informed rants on social media and blogs. In some cases, the individual will hide behind a pseudonym or alt account, other times they are quite happy to spout vitriol from a personal account.

A recent national garda seminar on media safety saw hundreds of journalists attend to find out on how to protect themselves better from these kinds of attacks.

There is a wider issue here, and it is an argument for some level of civil discourse being taught at an early age in schools. It’s patently clear that it’s not something discussed in a lot of family homes, and adults emerge into a far more instant and connected world today than even 10 or 20 years ago. 

Nowadays, anyone with a phone can instantly have access to an audience the size of a media organiation's circulation or market. An individual can publish content — true, fair and factual, or not — to thousands, potentially millions of people without any training or editorial oversight. As journalists, it is incumbent on us to learn or familiarise ourselves with media law. 

Sometimes, people are well meaning but simply unaware: Why is someone named in one court case, but not in another, for example? Why don't you cover this particular topic? There are very good - and obvious - reasons in almost all cases, which could be easily explained if the education was there.

The Kilkenny People has social media accounts across a variety of platforms, and the majority of our readers are polite and civil, and when they engage they are keen to contribute something useful to a discussion or story.

There is, however, a marginal cohort who chime in simply to harass or troll. They will publish a comment that may be outrageous or defamatory. They may publish something that is simply incorrect or untrue.

This kind of contribution, as well as potentially unfairly tarnishing someone's reputation, can have serious repercussions. It could destroy someone's mental health, damage legal proceedings - or even unwittingly collapse a court case or trial.

It seems unlikely these subjects are going to be popping up on the education curriculum any time soon, but hopefully as technology becomes more advanced and more accessible, people will learn to self-evaluate and reflect a little more, and take a moment to think before pressing 'send'.