Staff Reporter
The Irish Times has been accused of “systematic, persistent, and overwhelming bias” in favour of abortion following an analysis of its reporting by the Life Institute.
The Life Institute undertook a three-year examination of all articles published by the daily newspaper between January 2013 and December 2015 to reveal that of all published articles, “91% were found to have exhibited a pro-legalised abortion bias”. The figure climbed to 98% when confined to news reporting.
Acknowledging that the paper also carried pro-life articles in the period studied, the Life Institute found, however, that such articles accounted for just 23% of the total, with 76.7% showing the same bias towards legalised abortion.
Unveiling the Life Institute’s findings, spokesperson Niamh Uí Bhriain said they raised “serious questions about the conduct of the press in general and The Irish Times in particular during a contentious and emotive debate”.
“This study clearly finds that rather than providing facts and fair analysis, the Irish Times has instead been providing its readers with a relentless stream of one-sided coverage of the abortion issue in a way that is clearly designed to shift, rather than to inform, public opinion.”
Reacting to the findings, Dr Colum Kenny, retired chair of journalism at DCU said that if the Life Institute felt it could demonstrate media bias, it should bring its findings to the Press Council, “one of the mechanisms there to be used” in ensuring an unbiased media. “The mechanism is there and should be used,” he said.