By Anthony Sheridan
RTE journalist Aine Lawlor introduced a report on the ongoing Olympics ticket scandal in Brazil as follows:
Mr. Hickey and Kevin Mallon are both being held in the high security Bangu prison. They’re sharing prison space with convicted murderers, drug traffickers and gang members.
There are two reasons Irish journalists make such comments.
One: It tends to degrade the reputation of the police, prison service and civil service of the country involved suggesting that officialdom in that country does not operate to the high standards of a Western democratic country like Ireland.
Two: Establishment journalists like Lawlor are puzzled when powerful elites are forced to share prison space with ‘ordinary’ criminals. They are disturbed by this treatment of the elite because they never witness it in Ireland and therefore think it’s abnormal, barbaric behaviour.