Ireland's President Michael D Higgins spoke at the opening of IAMCR's 2013 conference in Dublin on 25 June. In a speech that included references to Jürgen Habermas, Karl Marx, Raymond Williams and Sean MacBride, President Higgins warned of increasing concentration of ownership of the media, decrying the "mega-mergers ... taking place among the search giants and social network corporations."
He also spoke of his interest in the discussions taking place at IAMCR 2013 and noted the strong presence of young scholars at the conference. "There are so many very fine pieces and my wish for these young scholars is that they go on from insight, to delivery of new perspectives, and that above all they achieve the opportunity of contributing, through communications, research and policy, to a deepening of democracy."
Video of President Higgins speech
Read President Higgins' remarks on the Irish presidency's website
Broadcasting in crisis, says President - Irish Times
Selected Tweets
@renbarau Only at a media conference could you get away with a habermas joke #IAMCR13
@reddeehynes #IAMCR13 proud moment listening to the president of Ireland Michael D Higgins give a wonderful lecture on media & comms as intro to our conf
@alduque I would like to have in my country one political leader with the cultural level of Ireland's President #IAMCR13