THE RECENT Paris attacks dominated the annual meeting of the Journalists’ Charity at the Irish Embassy in London earlier this week.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was on hand to commend journalists from across Britain on continuing to make us “freer” in the wake of the shootings in the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in the French capital last week.
“I myself have felt the sharp edge of your pens – but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he joked.
His comments come as the satirical magazine sold out its three million prints today – a significant increase on its usual 60,000 copies.
It marked the first issue to be published since the loss of 12 lives in the attack, thought to be because of an issue which contained a satirical slant on Islamism.
Clegg spoke in length of the importance of freedom; both freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
But he went on to criticise his political counterparts who support monitoring of all to protect the state.
Among the issues he highlighted were the Tories’ push to filter lawful web content and the so-called Snoopers’ Charter – which would see mobile phone companies maintaining records of each user’s internet activity.
“We have every right to invade the privacy of terrorists and those we think want to do us harm,” he said. “But we should not equate that with invading the privacy of every single person in the UK.”
His appearance at the event, as well as his words, were welcomed by members of the Irish Embassy.
Clare Brosnan, head of press at the Embassy, opened proceedings in place of Ambassador Dan Mulhall, who was caught up with the meeting of the Irish Ambassadors in Dublin.
On his behalf, she spoke enthusiastically of the significant year for the Embassy.
“It was a year of firsts for the Irish Embassy,” she said. “President Higgins made his historic visit to Britain, the Ambassador lay a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday and the two governments worked together in Belfast to bring about the 2014 Stormont House agreement.”
Clare also acknowledged the impact the incident in France is having on the press industry, leading into the Deputy Prime Minister’s talk on freedom of speech.
The Journalists’ Charity is a nationwide organisation whose goal it is to support journalists in their late years.
The organisation has built care homes for retired journalists and is expanding year on year, having celebrated its 150th anniversary this year.
