If you believed everything you read in the newspapers or saw on TV over the last couple of weeks regarding Irish politics you’ll know that Republicans have apparently been busy. From directing terrorism in Colombia, negotiating huge drug deals, testing a ‘superbomb’ to wipe out British cities, and masterminding the Thai shares scan netting themselves £150 million. Sadly media reporting on the Troubles has long been an extension of the British government and security services viewpoint and it appears things have not changed. Just when you thought the politicians at Stormont were finally running the show, along comes the government media machine and we’re back with them acting as referee.

And what timing. Just when the Ulster Unionists have effectively turned down the best opportunity for actual decommissioning in the face of the PIRA offer, and have failed to honour the policing changes, as laid down in the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), events occur shifting the blame and suddenly it is the PIRA and Republicans firmly back in the role of bogeymen. With information helpfully provided by the numerous security sources the media have dutifully done what was required of them and played the game.

From initial television reporting concerned with the huge payoff in drugs the PIRA would receive for training FARC, information as supplied by the Colombian authorities in partnership with British security services and allegedly following forensic testing, the media were happy to provide the sums.

Or what about the ‘superbomb’ they were testing in the Colombian jungle? The Sunday Times, again based on information received by the Colombian authority from forensics apparently confirming the presence of certain chemicals on the men’s clothing, wrote of a device similar to that witnessed in the Vietnam War.

And if the events in Colombia were not enough, one newspaper reported the PIRA masterminding the Thai shares fraud which earned them £150 million, a link supplied to the Thai police via the FBI, and ‘disclosed’ to the media.

This is without looking at the editorials that swung so dramatically, based upon said security sources, against Republicans overall, The Daily Telegraph going so far as to entitle them ‘Irish Yardies’.

And what of these initial reports so helpfully provided by security sources? Despite the numerous newspaper and television articles to the contrary, forensic evidence has cleared the men of any contact with drugs or ‘superbomb’ ingredients.


But it is not the issue of whether the PIRA is guilty or not. Rather the speed at which newspapers and television reported all manner of information derived from the security sources, with most theories being rejected merely days later. Only after the scrum of media coverage in the initial week did intelligent reporting begin, such as questioning the timing of the Colombian arrests. But, as in previous media coverage, what is initially broadcast can never be fully retracted. Thanks to such reporting, any intransigence by other parties supposedly signed up to the GFA remains dulled behind these events. Sadly it merely illustrates that nothing has changed, the government is still firmly holding the referee’s whistle and the media are happy to play along.