Ben Lowry: The troubling saga around the Loughinisland legal case shows the value of newspapers

Newspapers do not stop corrupt or incompetent things happening but, in western democratic societies, they do often uncover them.

Societies such as China have no independent media scrutiny of events and no fair or independent courts, so will never get on top of problems such as their endemic corruption. Instead the Communist Party is reduced to anti corruption drives, in which officials can be executed.

In China, not only is there no free press but there is no free speech or right to protest.

The massacre of pro reform students for demonstrating at Tiananmen in 1989 is expunged from history and cannot be commemorated (except in Hong Kong, where that right is now being undermined by Beijing). We don’t even know how many died in Tiananmen: estimates begin in the hundreds.

Contrast that with America where there was extensive scrutiny and soul searching over the 1970 shooting dead of four protesting students at Kent State, Ohio.

In the West even a weekly paper with a few reporters can shed light on frauds, planning disputes, etc.

A regional daily paper such as this one comes out more often and so can uncover even more.

A national paper has still greater resources, and can reveal yet more.

In Northern Ireland, the Renewable Heat Incentive saga was, at best, an administrative shambles in which public funds were squandered. The most accessible detailed account of RHI was written by a reporter on this paper, Sam McBride.

This the world’s oldest English language daily title, founded almost 300 years ago, in 1737. I have read all the earliest surviving 1738-39 editions, which seem primitive compared to today, yet were revolutionary. Prior to them, news spread by rumour, town crier or pamphlet.

The late Jonathan Bardon told me that much of our understanding of King William’s journey to the Boyne to fight the Catholic James II comes from his chaplain’s diary.

That 1690 battle was decades before most newspapers. They suddenly provided a single place where key developments could be relayed to the public, at fixed time intervals. From that moment the workings of society became more transparent.

The quest to provide news on everything, from war to celebrity to science, is evident in those early News Letters. If you go forward 50 years and read 1780s editions, they are bigger and better than the 1730s. Society is more advanced, helped by better information.

Newspapers have endured ever since, despite falling circulations in the TV age. Lockdown has not killed papers,but it has caused circulations to fall further. In recent weeks many people have subscribed to us to support our journalism (see below how to do so).

Among other examples of this paper providing scrutiny to an under examined issue is our querying of the slow the return to schools, which we have done for more than a month (see link below).

Also our querying of how the legacy of the Troubles has turned against state forces who prevented civil war. Many people do not accept such a positive assessment of the role of the state, but I think more people do than do not, yet you would never know that from the way legacy is panning out (or indeed being covered).

There is not space here to detail the troubling saga around the handling of complaints about the RUC response to the 1994 Loughinisland loyalist massacre.

The murders were a grievous sectarian crime but their horror cannot mean ex RUC are not entitled to due process.

Reports on these pages by Mark Rainey and analysis articles have examined the case,

It is a complex saga that highlights the sweeping, misleading definition of collusion.

The controversy began when the then Ombudsman Al Hutchinson issued a report which did not find collusion in the killings.

Dr Michael Maguire, who as criminal justice inspector criticised that report, later became ombudsman. When the first report was quashed, he issued a new one that did find collusion.

In 2018, Mr Justice McCloskey was highly critical of the Maguire findings of collusion, as “unsustainable in law”. He said RUC officers “were, in effect, accused, tried and convicted without notice and in their absence. None of the essential elements of the criminal or disciplinary process existed”.

It was devastating verdict. But then there was a highly unusual allegation of bias against him, which he firmly rejected, yet stood aside even so (out of respect for the families of the Loughinisland victims).

There are grave doubts as to the appropriateness of him recusing himself in that way.

Ms Justice Keegan later issued a completely different ruling to McCloskey.

Wednesday’s appeal court ruling on Loughinisland, while it criticised Dr Maguire overstepping the mark in his collusion findings (criticism that was absent in Ms Justice Keegan’s ruling, that the appeal judges in effect upheld), does not settle the matter.

In this country we have a fine legal system and are free to criticise it, yet papers rarely do, such is the deference to judges.

I still believe that the case is so serious that it should to the Supreme Court to get complete clarity as to the legal position.

At the same time, in case the case is lost, London must also be ready to act to stop its like ever happening again.

The BBC Newsline report on Thursday went big on collusion being upheld, with a brief mention of the over-stepping criticism.

We will continue to examine the case and consider the extent to which the security forces can get a fair hearing on legacy matters.

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter deputy editor

• Ben Lowry: We also led way in sceptical reporting of slow return to schools

• Court of Appeal rules Police Ombudsman ‘overstepped the mark’ in Loughinisland findings

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