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THE STREISAND EFFECT: when an attempt by a high-profile person to remove information from public view has the effect of drawing far more attention and scrutiny to that information than it would have otherwise earned.
Why is it a phrase on Irish lips?
The Effect was perfectly illustrated over the past few days following independent TD Catherine Murphy’s speech in the Dáil on Thursday relating to the banking details of businessman Denis O’Brien.
TheJournal.ie reported those comments shortly after they were made on Thursday afternoon. Within one hour of the article being published, we received a letter from Denis O’Brien’s lawyers threatening TheJournal.ie with an injunction if the article was not removed by 5pm.
Similar letters winged their way to The Irish Times and Broadsheet.ie, claiming that publication of the comments was in breach of a previous injunction obtained by O’Brien against RTÉ on reporting of details of his banking relationship with IBRC.
Only this morning, did the High Court definitively rule that that injunction did not restrict the reporting of Catherine Murphy’s speech in the Dáil. (Some media outlets did choose to publish the details of the speech including Broadsheet.ie and The Sunday Times).
So now it can be read in full here… not that anyone who wanted to read the speech couldn’t do so until now.
How so?
While Broadsheet chose to leave their article up, the speech had also been available on the Oireachtas website and on Catherine Murphy’s channel on YouTube ever since it was delivered on Thursday.
Meanwhile over the bank holiday weekend, details of the speech were being widely posted and shared on Twitter and Facebook.
While TheJournal.ie was anxious to wait for the courts to give a clarification – for our future reference – to this unprecedented claim that our privilege to report on Oireachtas proceedings was trumped by a potential contempt of court, the reality for Denis O’Brien was that the information was on the ground and had gone viral.
Would that have happened had our initial report of comments which were made at the very end of the Order of Business on a quiet Thursday before a bank holiday weekend not been legally challenged? Or would the report have received some commentary but then slipped away into the ether?
Where does Barbara Streisand come into it?
The expression ‘the Streisand effect’ dates to a 2003 attempt by US entertainer Barbara Streisand to halt publication of an aerial photograph of her Malibu home being used in a publicly available collection of 12,000 photos of California coastlines.
She took a $50 million lawsuit to stop the photograph of her house being included in the collection.
However, within the first month of legal letters being issued, an estimated 420,000 people visited the website which had published the photograph of her house. Before legal proceedings began, the image of her house had been downloaded a mere six times (two of which were by her own lawyers). It is arguable that had her legal eagles not gotten involved, few members of the public might have been alerted to the image.
More recently, a case in Australia earlier this year invoked the phrase when the country’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, took legal action against a dramatic series based on her life called ‘House of Hancock’.
The judge said claims by her legal team “could close down all of Shakespeare plays” but in the end an out-of-court settlement was reached before its first broadcast.
The first episode – while carrying a “fictionalised” tag – saw more than two million viewers tune in. A review in the Sydney Morning Herald points out that, as a result of the hugely-publicised case, “no doubt, even more people watched” than might have had they not been directed to the possible real-life parallels by Rinehart’s own legal team.
Never heard of it
Last week, spokesperson for Denis O’Brien, James Morrissey, mentioned on Today FM’s The Last Word that he had never heard of the Streisand Effect.
International media, not falling within the jurisdiction of the Irish courts but whose articles were readily accessible to the Irish public online, published details of the story and of Catherine Murphy’s comments.
Twitter buzzed to the hashtags #redacted and #OBrienvMedia. If O’Brien’s advisors or spokespeople were unaware of the Streisand effect, four short days ago, they surely are aware of it now.
- additional reporting by Susan Daly
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Catherine Murphy – the real Opposition!
Exactly, Catherine Murphy the great!
What a wonderful, brave, righteous woman doing what she was elected to do ie. serve the best interests of the people. My hero, I absolutely adore that woman and her indefatigable quest for
transparency and truth. Kenny, Burton, Noonan, et all – hang your heads in shame.
Heard on primetime how when broadsheet would not be bullied. Dob sent letter from solicitor to broadshees internet provider , web hosting.Friday 11.05am: Hosting Ireland (broadsheet’s web providers): “We have received a letter from Denis O’Brien’s solicitor William Fry regarding content on your site breaching a high court injunction. ‘As you are hosted on our network we can become responsible if we do not act on this. We request you please remove this content as soon as possible and confirm.” so he tried everything to stop people from reading Catherine Murphy’s speech. Then they claim today it was never their intention. Codswallop.
Saw that, kudos to the http://www.broadsheet.ie/
@ the Journal.ie:
Read your online reviews on the app store; the damage you have done to yourselves is virtually beyond repair. Personally, I haven’t posted a review, nor do I intend to, but what’s there speaks for itself.
Mr O’ Brien does not own you; your actions were purely based on cowardice, culminating in the reams of comment threads in unrelated stories in relation to your collective cowardice for over a week on your own site and furthermore on the Google app store.
I have used and commented on this site for years; admittedly, I’ve been banned once before but that was because I didn’t abide by your rules. One of the major advantages that this site has is the comment section; people’s genuine opinions on the news can be taken into account, debated with, ridiculed, scorned or cherished, to the point that a commentator has had an article posted here.
Your cowardice in the last week, while not directly owned as part of that man’s media machine, but willing to be cowed by the threat of possible legal action in spite of his past and present detrimental actions in relation to the citizens of this country has seriously damaged your credibility to my mind’s eye.
You’ll see less of me, that much is certain, but I felt I had to say it.
Ah here….do ya not think it’s time to get over it? You seem more outraged with the journal than Dob. They pulled an article when there was no need to..fair enough. They erred on the side of caution and prob regret it but anyone who wanted to read what she said could do so easily somewhere else. Some people just love being outraged.
Comment of the week wolf pack. Summed the whole thing up perfectly there
Here here. The Journal is really just an entertainment site now. Barely read Broadsheet before. But I will now…..
Plus anyone anywhere that thought a high court injunction trumped the constitution is showing a massive amount of ignorance and stupidity.
Wolf Pack you are missing the point here. If the journal hierarchy had any journalistic principles they would have defended the freedom of the press and stood up to REDACTED. Bowing and forelock tugging to the establishment seems more important than good honest journalism.
Sorry now, WP, but that’s not the case.
I have posted several links detailing the current business interests that O’ Brien has in this country over the last week in an effort to encourage a boycott of his products to voice our collective displeasure at this situation. These links were removed time and time again; admittedly, they’ve stayed up since yesterday but I have a right to voice my displeasure at being silenced when all I was trying to do was raise awareness of this man’s business interests and how to avoid paying him the revenue he craves.
So, yeah, you’re actually completely wrong in saying that I’m more outraged at the journal.ie than O’ Brien, and also wrong in claiming that I love to be outraged; this is a serious issue and the journal.ie chose cowardice over providing it’s readership with important information that we have a right to know.
I’ll ask you this. How many other media outlets..radio, newspaper, t.v etc allow the common person to have a voice? Were your views or links broadcast anywhere else other media outlet? (Not facebook) Did you send them into the editor of the times?
Now once the journal made the call to pull the article (and as I said in my last post they will prob agree it was the wrong call) they had to back it up my pulling other comments which they saw as liable i.e yours.
I think people take the service the journal provides for granted. It allows normal Joe soaps like you or me to publish a piece of writing which can be reviewed on a national scale. We can argue debate etc just like we are doing now.
My argument is they should not be blacklisted because of one bad call. If they get sued it’s there jobs on the line and it’s far too easy for us to take the moral high ground.
In fairness now, how was a high court injunction expected to trump the Constitution? They weren’t going to be sued; it was a threat from a malignant force in Irish society that, realistically, wasn’t going to happen but they took seriously, to the detriment of their own credibility. His bluff was called on Tuesday, culminating in the BS statement that the group “never intended to silence the media”.
I’ll take your point that that it may be harsh to blacklist them for “one bad call”, but in fairness, it hasn’t been one bad call, the site has been going downhill for quite some time and this debacle was essentially the straw that broke the camel’s back. Do you not think that it’s a joke that only satirical websites such as WWN and Broadsheet.ie with the notable exception of the Times were brave enough to publish the story? Obviously, his media machine certainly wasn’t and he thought he could bully the rest into silence because he’s the big fish in a small pond with the right people in his pocket.
The Toaiseach has been nowhere to be found throughout the hole thing as well, similarly, a complete joke. Remember O’ Connell’s interview with the elusive leader? The inability to ask a tough question? That’s just one example of what I’m talking about vis a vis going downhill.
What’s happened in the last week is like what you’d expect in some tinpot, backwards dictatorship with the media muzzled to point that people vented their frustrations by clogging up the comment sections of unrelated stories.
Look, this is a great country but the way we’re going is frightening. One person shouldn’t have so much power and influence, especially if that person has been found to be corrupt by an extremely costly (and ultimately pointless) tribunal and pays the bare minimum of tax, preferring instead to live as a tax exile in Malta.
The media has a responsibility to report the news that matters; this story mattered.
He managed to wake the masses more than any journalist or independent TD could have. Hopefully its the first domino in a long line that shows how corrupt the whole lot of them are.
You’re including Catherine Murphy in that too, I take it?
CAB should have knocked on his door a long time ago.
Surprise surprise DOB didn’t mention water meters they haven’t gone away you know.
This debacle has helped galvanize the electorate against Irish Water and by extension O’Brien’s establishment bedfellows Fine Gael.
For that we are eternally grateful.
Thank you Denis.
He has awoken the country. So thanks Denis. He tried and failed. Now everyone is asking questions. Now everyone wants to know. What was he trying to hide. Good for us , that these deals are in the public interest. Now over to you government for a full and proper independent inquiry. Keep up the good work Catherine.
Denis O’Brien has turned the public spotlight on himself by overeacting to the RTE report on his financial dealings.Now every thing this guy does will be reported in full. Bit of an own goal Denis?
He succeeded in discrediting Journal’s reputation as a journalist-driven news gathering organisation, for one.
Whoever took the editorial decision to cave in to this obnoxious individual should consider thrir position with the Journal as the damage done to this media outlet is terminal
He a chief the same notoriety as An Taoiseach – The achievement of a likened Hate level from the Irish People !
He has also brought foreword The General Election as this Government is just reeling at the moment .
Labour TD’s can’t even get a nights sleep anymore – as they know that annihilation lies shortly ahead now !
You know, I was reading through articles earlier. And it hit me..he went to court originally to stop rte from broadcasting his affairs, because they would cause irreperable damage to him.
Well maybe thats the truth. Maybe he’s so fu(£ed up maybe the truth is out. Maybe he’s broke. And maybe he’s scared.maybe he did take the loans and maybe in hindsight they were a bad idea. And maybe he backed the wrong horse.
I honestly think this guy has motive, will movr..his money is being wired as we speak, and his speakers are being prepped for the morning news.
Thats a lot of maybes that are in that synopsis..but maybe they are true.
Jenni what absolute nonsense. You’re an embarrassment, I don’t know where to begin with that waffle.
Has O’Brien gone to the Gardai to report the ‘stolen’ documents that Ms
Murphy has put to such good use. He probably cannot get through to them from Haiti or wherever it is he hails from these days #redacted #obrienmedia #whineybillionaire
According to his representatives he is an Irish citzen… He just happens to pay his tax in Malta ..lol!!!
I think the real point was to show that he can intimidate people and that he will not take scrutiny of his affairs lightly. As such, he wanted people (in the media, the legal system, government, etc) to know about this; the “Streisand effect” seems of limited relevance to me in this whole thing.
To the extent that it is, I certainly hope this will have changed some people’s perspective on O’Brien, but the real issue regarding him is media ownership, his close proximity to power in Ireland (incorporating the Siteserv deal), and the findings of the Moriarty relating to his dealings with Michael Lowry.
These are issues people ought to have been concerned about prior to this jaunt down to the Four Courts, and today’s shenanigans are a sideshow to these bigger issues, albeit they provide a glimpse into the kind of entitled, untouchable sense of worth the likes of oligarch, Maltese-exile types luxuriate in.
Spot on.
Americans have a term for the kind of litigation where winning isn’t the only or main intention; it’s mostly about spending a lot of money to legally steamroller those concerned with public affairs who with less of it: SLAAP – Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
Ireland just got SLAPPed by O’Brien. The established media were already on their tippy-toes reporting on anything to do with him. That paralysing mix of fear (from Victorian defamation laws) and deference (from the scale of his media interests) has been reinforced.
There are a lot of questions to be answered about O’Brien’s apparently soft loans and special treatment (paid for by an almost bankrupt state). I don’t expect those questions to be asked with much vigour, nevermind answered. Whatever about the Streisand Effect, O’Brien has signalled that questions will be met by snarling litigation. It also can’t be long before the real hit-pieces on Catherine Murphy TD in the papers he owns.
Love your Our Future Reference excuse. Just admit your balls shrank when you got a dodgy email of the Solicitors.
Trying to block the speech ignited a tsunami of pulicity about the speech, that would possiby have been forgotten about alreadly had it not being blocked in the first place.
Not paying.
Here’s me runnin off to buy denisobrien.co.uk to set up a comments section there….DOH!!! Waste of a tenner
AKA To shoot oneself in the foot
AKA Own goal etc etc
“Going forward” he has to stop taking advice from Biffo .
Heard the Morrissey interview.Matt Cooper asked,”have you heard of the Streisand effect” and Morrissey had no clue but instead of saying that he said,”tell me” which turned ignorance into an order which I found revealing and a good trick.He later reminded Matt that all employees of DOB were subject to injunction in a bald threat.All DOB media outlets are compromised by having a boss who cracks down on ancient traditions of free speech. He should have just said to Murphy ,” say that outside the dail and I’ll sue” but he’s a fat baby billionaire tax exile…
If he brings one more injunction, he gets a free pen!
this government cannot remain in office because of it friendship with a person that attacked Irish democracy, the Irish constitution. they abandoned the people and went into hiding.
The power, influence, control, dominance and political dictation by DOB remain undiminished.
Phil Hogan and DOB are good and mutually loyal friends.
Any journalist worth their salt would now be asking all sort of probing questions about IBRC/Siteserv/Topaz/INM deals. But i don’t think there are any on this site or RTE’s for that matter. Have to go to Broadsheet or a foreign based news site to get the truth these days.
Nothing
You had your chance Journal.ie and you blew it.
Dennis O’Brian is a thug and a bully….
Victory to the people….
viva la resistance
very good assessment of the high court judgement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWVsAiF8Qeg
this is about a lot more than obrien. i suspect that if a comprehensive investigation of IBRC was carried out many more scandals would come to light.
under the governments proposals KPMG will be effectively investigating a transaction handled by KPMG……….hardly impartial.
people need to look beyond dennis o’brien, his day will come. there is a lot more on the table here.
I have a couple of questions about this side show
1 why did the judge not order an emergency sitting to discuss what happened last Thursday before now? Surely the horse had bolted at this stage making the injunction worthless. You would think he would want to clarify any potential constitutional crisis and have it wrapped pretty sharpish?
2 absolute silence from Enda, few cronies out on the radio but no sign of him. If it’s all good why not just come out and say something?
Someone please tell Inda and the awful Burton woman its safe to come out now!
Rent, buy, beg, borrow or steal an experienced lawyer who can distinguish between a viable argument and plausible bullsh!t, because your current advisors are clearly not up to the job.
The only media outlets which didn’t try to get Catherine Murphy speech out are the ones owned by DOB. They also sat on their thumbs while the non DOB controlled media RTE , TIMES Etc went to court to release the Story !. That is very unhealthy in a Democracy!
Catherine Murphy is one of the few TD’s who deserves re-election.
(Reads headline)
Erm…shut up the Journal? Don’t try and paint this a different shade lads.
Here’s an appropriate recipe for today!
I always thought there was an L in Barbara Streisand! Awful to realise something you thought for years is wrong. This must be how the Christians felt when they found out the earth was round
I know.
Can’t tell you how many sleepless nights I’ve had over the years deliberating about the correct pronunciation of Hollywood stars names.
Huge sigh of relief knowing I wasn’t the only one.
What I’d like to know is; where are Edna and Joan? Have they not got something to say?
Both utterly conspicuous by their flagrant indifference!
Hole in wan. :)
“It is arguable that had her legal eagles not gotten involved”
One more time then: GOT is the past participle of the verb “to get”. “GOTTEN” is an Americanism. Do Journal journalists need leaving certificate English as a requirement for a job?
Own goal
DoB=SB=CJH=BA=EK
So much of our world is controlled by those who bend and twist every law to their bidding or buy influence or bully those who stand up to them. I’m glad that this debacle happened because it is a further boot in the hole we the people need to wake us up before the rest of our national assets are sold off to the highest bidder and to try to get back what has been stolen, raped and pillaged from us
The original injunction ok, it only involved an rte documentary anyway, or so I thought, but to believe you are above the law is unforgivable.
The media cannot control the masses anymore Mr. O’Brien.
Where are my posts gone.
D.O.B thought he was better than the rest of us- all his media all his Money and he is a proven arseHole-
I love the gang of after the fact legal experts out there now. TheJournal were threatened that they might be in contempt of court as the matter had not been sufficiently legally clarified. While they may well have fel tthey were in the right to keep the article up, contempt of court is a serious matter and they were correct to await clarification.
If it were your business, your employees and your friends being threatened by the richest and most powerful man in the country, would you not er on the side of caution at least until you are sure of your legal footing?
The articles are all back up now, and the publishers know that DOBs threats are meaningless – let’s move on and keep reporting the real stories here.
Stopped a program full of half-truths and innuendo being broadcast by RTE
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