Politician Threaten Tweeter's Job Over Mild Photoshop

oceanclub

Neil of krank.ie has written an article on how Irish politicians are attempting to link "cyber bullying" with political satire in order to silence criticism.

http://www.krank.ie/category/opinions/jokes-will-be-outlawed-in-rabbittes-ireland/

A musical director of a popular chat show in RTE (Ireland's national broadcaster), Jim Sheridan, is a regular and popular tweeter and has a long history of fairly mild photoshop spoofs aimed at politicians of all parties and other tweeters. (Such as this one: http://twitpic.com/br6cl4)

Unfortunately for him, one of the people he lately spoofed was Ronan Mullen, an ultra-Catholic independent senator known for his hardline dogmatic Catholic views on abortion and whose history includes stories of allegedly being "nasty" to women who had abortions due to unviable foetuses (http://www.thejournal.ie/ronan-mullen-horrified-at-nasty-suggestions-over-abortion-debate-424919-Apr2012/) and linking abortion to the Newtown Connecticut massacre (http://www.thejournal.ie/ronan-mullen-abortion-newtown-double-think-721352-Dec2012/).

Today's Irish Independent has reported that both the Irish communications minister, Pat Rabbitte and Mullen himself have condemned Sheridan's photoshops as "offensive" and that someone (unnamed) had complained to Sheridan's employer about him.

One of the tweets alleged by Pat Rabbitte to be "dreadful and offensive" is "the head of [Ronan Mullen] stuck onto the body of a man wearing nothing but swimming trunks and a large crucifix." (!)

RTE have not yet confirmed if they will take action against Sheridan.

There's a petition supporting Sheridan here:

http://twitition.com/vi5my

P.

RDM_83 again

There's a sticky at the top of the page for petitions.
To be fair if some one has highly driven political agenda and is working for a public broadcaster they should be careful on how they go about it, not saying its right but that in a tax payer funded position in the media is a bit different to a normal job.

Manach

oceanclub wrote: »

Ronan Mullen, an ultra-Catholic independent senator known for his hardline dogmatic Catholic views on abortion

- ie a decent Catholic politician.

Xantia

oceanclub wrote: »

RTE have not yet confirmed if they will take action against Sheridan.

P.

How hypocritical of Pravda/RTÉ when their own chairman's company writes spin for the government
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0522/breaking20.html

jimmycrackcorm

If Jim Sheridan wants to dish it out then he shouldn't be surprised at the backlash.

Nodin

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

If Jim Sheridan wants to dish it out then he shouldn't be surprised at the backlash.

You don't think that a joke about a politician being condemned by the Minister for Communications is a bit OTT?

Corkfeen

Manach wrote: »

- ie a decent Catholic politician.

His comments on Newtown doesn't exactly fall into the territory of a decent politician...It was a strange attempt at emotional manipulation.

Death and Taxes

Manach wrote: »

- ie a decent Catholic politician.

Decent is not a word I would use in relation to intolerance and bigotry.

Sierra Oscar

Pat Rabitte condemned Brian Cowen as attempting to stifle free speech when he complained about an artists portrayal of him which he found to be offensive.

It seems now that the Minister is in a similar position he is unable to hack the pressure. What a hypocrite.

hatrickpatrick

My God, this government really will do anything it can to soften the public up to attempts at regulating the internet, won't it? :mad:

20Cent

Been following the story on twitter it really is outrageous to scapegoat this guy over a joke. They really are trying to crack down on criticism online its disgraceful. Rabbit mustn't have much to do to be commenting on twitter jokes.

Mullen should do what his leader told him to, turn the other cheek and forgive.

Sully

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

My God, this government really will do anything it can to soften the public up to attempts at regulating the internet, won't it? :mad:

Christ, what is it with this country? Everything is a conspiracy, and everything goes into a silly rant.

I really don't think the government give two fecks about what the internet trolls hiding behind pseudo names think about their performance in government. I think a considerable amount of people would never have voted for them in the first place and want a different type of politics. God knows how many actually voted.

There needs to be some form of redress when these trolls take it a step to far. A number of media websites stopped 'completely' anonymous postings by switching to Facebook / Twitter. But the trolls created fake accounts to get around it.

I'd prefer to see stricter control over the type of criticism any individual can get online - whether it be any random soul, or someone of a particular importance. This is what the government should be looking into. Websites like Boards.ie have a great team of moderators who aim to ensure the conversations are civil and fair, without getting very personal. But a number of other very high profile (including some Irish websites) have little or no control.

20Cent

Sully wrote: »

Christ, what is it with this country? Everything is a conspiracy, and everything goes into a silly rant.

I really don't think the government give two fecks about what the internet trolls hiding behind pseudo names think about their performance in government. I think a considerable amount of people would never have voted for them in the first place and want a different type of politics. God knows how many actually voted.

There needs to be some form of redress when these trolls take it a step to far. A number of media websites stopped 'completely' anonymous postings by switching to Facebook / Twitter. But the trolls created fake accounts to get around it.

I'd prefer to see stricter control over the type of criticism any individual can get online - whether it be any random soul, or someone of a particular importance. This is what the government should be looking into. Websites like Boards.ie have a great team of moderators who aim to ensure the conversations are civil and fair, without getting very personal. But a number of other very high profile (including some Irish websites) have little or no control.

The case in question isn't an anonymous troll account the guy used his real name. It was satire of a public figure, just like every newspaper runs cartoons, tv and radio shows do everyday.

If they want to make a statement about bullying then how come no one has bothered finding out about the real bullying and death threads that have allegedly been made. That would be worth doing instead of just scapegoating Sheridan.

Sully

20Cent wrote: »

The case in question isn't an anonymous troll account the guy used his real name. It was satire of a public figure, just like every newspaper runs cartoons, tv and radio shows do everyday.

If they want to make a statement about bullying then how come no one has bothered finding out about the real bullying and death threads that have allegedly been made. That would be worth doing instead of just scapegoating Sheridan.

I'm talking in general. Some would find some of those pictures offensive or insulting, its up the individual I guess.

What do you mean 'real' bullying & death threats?

20Cent

Sully wrote: »

I'm talking in general. Some would find some of those pictures offensive or insulting, its up the individual I guess.

What do you mean 'real' bullying & death threats?

Satire has been around since the invention of print. Should Irish Pictorial Weekly, the Savage eye, strawberry alarmclock all those things be banned because it might offend someone. What Sheridan did is no different to any of those yet he gets it in the neck for doing the exact same thing.

The papers today have stories from TD's claiming to have been sent death threats via social media. Why haven't they gone after these people then? Its illegal there are already laws in place for this. There have also been suicides attributed to bullying. Why hasn't Pat Rabbit announced that they will be going after these people?

They don't seem to be discriminating between , satire, humor and actual malicious attempts to harm. Lumping it all as the same thing. They aren't using the legislation available to them now, why try an moderate the internet which is essentially impossible anyway!

VinLieger

20Cent wrote: »

Satire has been around since the invention of print. Should Irish Pictorial Weekly, the Savage eye, strawberry alarmclock all those things be banned because it might offend someone. What Sheridan did is no different to any of those yet he gets it in the neck for doing the exact same thing.

The papers today have stories from TD's claiming to have been sent death threats via social media. Why haven't they gone after these people then? Its illegal there are already laws in place for this. There have also been suicides attributed to bullying. Why hasn't Pat Rabbit announced that they will be going after these people?

They don't seem to be discriminating between , satire, humor and actual malicious attempts to harm. Lumping it all as the same thing. They aren't using the legislation available to them now, why try an moderate the internet which is essentially impossible anyway!

Also notice how it only has became a serious issue for them after one of their own was so seriously affected by it he committed suicide but when 2 sisters did it they didnt bat an eyelid

Sin City

Ill bet mario rosenstock and the boys fr omapres matchare ****ing themselves lol

Bring back spitting image.

Seriously though , have the government have better things to focus on ... Like say the economy