Three Irish Newspapers Caught Spreading Misinformation
At the end of June 2019, three Irish newspapers publicly retracted and paid compensation to a former seminarian after acknowledging the dissemination of false defamatory material against him.
In May 2018, the well-known Irish Times newspaper was the first to publish an account of a tale of sordid behavior which had taken place in the Pontifical Irish College in Rome. In its wake, two newspapers with large circulation—The Irish Examiner and The Echo—followed suit, spreading the false information.
In an authentic journalistic approach, The Irish Catholic Newspaper carried out a thorough investigation which enabled them to dismantle piece-by-piece the supposed information, which was not actually based on any concrete facts.
Despite this, the three offending newspapers remained silent for months, even trying to defend the articles they had published and continued to post on their websites.
On June 29, 2019, The Irish Times finally acknowledged in a statement that, “there was no truth in and no basis for this allegation.” But the harm has been done, since a man was defamed with the goal of attacking and dirtying the Church a little more.
For David Quinn, the director of the Iona Institute, a conservative organization in Ireland, “this confirms the suspicion of many Catholics that, when it comes to the Church, priests, religious, or seminarians, anything is permitted.”
(Sources : cath.ch/crux/irishtimes - FSSPX.Actualités – 07/16/2019)