18th Apr 2008
Chairman’s comments
Below are the comments I will be making at tonight’s Coca Cola CIPR Press and Broadcast Awards:
Deputy First Minister, Ladies and gentlemen is a wonderful pleasure to welcome you all here tonight for the 15th Coca Cola CIPR Press and Broadcast Awards.
Can I thank Coca Cola for their continued sponsorship and support as well as the other sponsors and of course my colleagues on the CIPR Committee for the voluntary commitment and enthusiasm for all the events we host. No awards would be possible without the judges and can I thank them all and in particular Bob Satchell as chairperson for committing to the onerous task of adjudicating on very high quality work. Of course none of this would be possible without the work of MCI Ovation, our events company, who are pulling this party together for us all. Can you join with me in showing your appreciation for all of the above.
Most of all can I thank each and every member of the press who entered these awards. The ongoing determination to excel and desire to compete has characterised this night since its inception a decade and a half ago. Tonight will be no different.
It is a great pleasure to welcome you Deputy First Minister. In the tenth anniversary year of the Good Friday Agreement I can think of no finer way of acknowledging our shared institutions and in welcoming the opportunities created by locally accountable government then by your presence here tonight Mr McGuinness. I know you will have to leave us after your remarks for another engagement but on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and I am sure everyone here, can I thank you for making the time to be with us and wish our institutions a long and productive life.
These are the only press awards organised by the public relations’ profession anywhere in these islands. I know colleagues elsewhere on these islands are exploring the possibility of hosting similar events. We would encourage them to do so. The fourth estate deserves recognition and we are particularly proud to be associated with you.
Long used to being world news little did we ever think that our press would become the talk of every editor in the free world. Yet the recent determination of one newspaper to defend the principle of fair comment has brought a global spotlight on this city. The CIPR stands with the Irish News as I believe we all do for defending this on behalf of the free press everywhere.
Our new institutions have brought challenges for us all. The business of investigative journalism has moved from the dark allies of paramilitarism to the accounts of state and the concerns of local politics. We have recognised this with a new category, scoop of the year. For many of you Freedom of Information is the torch you can shine in the filing cabinets of public administration. The bain of many a colleague in the public sector it remains none the less a fundamental plank of open government. There can be no dark corners in a free society.
Worldwide 87 journalists were killed in 2007 doing their job. We remember them and the only journalist murdered during our conflict, Martin O’Hagan. 8 more have fallen this year. Killed for seeking the truth. On night’s like tonight I am reminded of the words of the great journalist and philosopher Albert Camus when he said that “A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad.”
Of course if it not just hard news we celebrate tonight. It is all news. From features to fillies the business pages to the glory of our great games you give us something to talk about over coffee to text about when bored and, for the die hards like myself a blog or two along the way.
Thank you for making this night a special one.
And most of all for filling our lives with news and gossip and something to argue about.
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