EAMON DUNPHY has hit out at the mainstream media in Ireland for failing to hold authority to account.
Speaking to The Irish Post about his autobiography The Rocky Road, the journalist described Irish society as rotten and took a swipe at the mainstream media at home.
“If you get caught doing something wrong in England you get punished, like the former Cabinet minister Chris Huhne, and his wife [jailed in March of this year for 62 days perverting the course of justice in respect of a traffic offence when Vicky Pryce took speeding points for her husband].
“If that happened in Ireland there wouldn’t be a hope in hell that they would serve one day. It wouldn’t have even got to court.
“There’s a penalty points scandal here now and the Garda Commissioner is one of those who has had his points deducted. It’s a jungle here. There’s no law.”
Dunphy's comments come following recent criticisim of the Irish media by Guardian columnist Roy Greenslade and other members of the British and international media.
“I just feel if you do wrong, you should be punished and I think that Plebgate story, the phone hacking scandal, the parliamentary committees you have in Westminster, all of that, we don’t have any of that," Dunphy continued.
"We couldn’t have called Rupert Murdoch and his son up. We couldn’t have got to the bottom of the phone hacking. We don’t have the institutions or the will. We just don’t live in that kind of democracy. We don’t have a democracy.
"It’s a total and utter sham here. They are not even pretending it’s a democracy. It’s so appalling it’s frightening."
He added: “You don’t have to make peace with it. In Volume 2 [of his book] I will try and address it. Why don’t Irish people rise up? Well, their representatives are in the loop with the big boys. That’s why. It’s no secret, and most of the journalists are in the same loop. It’s a rotten society.”
See this Wednesday’s Irish Post newspaper for full interview.
