Statement by TUV Comber councillor Stephen Cooper:
“The decision of the Irish Government to fund research into the “use of language” on the media in Northern Ireland should alert unionists to the continuing interference of the Irish Republic’s government in Northern Ireland’s affairs, and prompt several questions.
“First of all, what business is it of Dublin to regulate the media in Northern Ireland? Print and broadcast media is already regulated by law, law over with Dublin has no say. How would RTE react if Westminster sought to research the “use of language” in their broadcasts? Frankly the opening point which needs to be made to Dublin on this issue is mind your own business.
“Secondly, it is not the role of the media to shut out voices which Dublin finds unhelpful to its aims in Northern Ireland. Who are Dublin or people like Paul Gosling, who works with the SDLP as well as leading this project, to decide what constitutes rational debate? Why aren’t people entitled to get angry about the interfering of the Republic in the internal affairs of this part of the UK? What is so dangerous about loyalism that you would seek to shut their voices out of political debate?
“It speaks volumes that this research into curtailing pro-Union opinion has even been commissioned by the Republic’s administration.
“A free press and the right to be heard are cornerstones of any democracy. Politics is a passionate business and people are entitled to get angry and use language in public to articulate that.
“Whatever the outcome of this research I know I speak for many, when I say we won’t modify our language to please a state which harboured those who murdered our fellow countrymen and women and openly seeks to subsume us into a united Ireland and force us out of the UK.”