An Investigation has been launched into Trinity's college Newspaper, the University Times, after an alleged bugging of a secret society's hazing from outside an on-campus apartment.
The newspaper is now facing investigation, and a petition has been set up in order to have the editor and staff involved step down from their posts due to unethical reporting of the story, but the editor, Eleanor O'Mahony says she stands over the reporting of the newspaper.
Last Friday, a story was published detailing the initiation ceremony that took place in the on-campus room of the elite society's room. The two journalists involved in the reporting, left a recording device outside the door where the hazing was on-going, and then left the scene and waited out of sight for over an hour and a half, only for the device to be taken by the society after discovering it outside their door.
The article was written based on the conversations overheard by the journalists before leaving the scene. Statements such as "bend over", "get in the shower", and "it's going to be a long night boys", were allegedly made by the group.
The device in question is still in possession of the society, so any quotes used in the said article are based off what the two reporters heard themselves.
Eleanor O'Mahony, editor of The University Times, told the Journal.ie that they have no intention of stepping down over the incident.
“We take our work seriously. We’re happy to stand over our reporting,” she said
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The investigation into the matter is still on-going and is being conducted by the Junior Dean.
A petition was launched yesterday in the college to revoke salary, on-campus accommodation and funding from the University Times over the incident, which O'Mahony says she is "personally disappointed" by. She told the Journal,
“The aftermath of controversy like this is not the time to make decisions about the long-term future of the paper,”
Trinity News, a separate college newspaper said in an editorial,
“If UT escapes this situation with no consequences, and believe, as both the current and incoming editors who wrote the story seem to, that secret recordings are acceptable news sources, then students should be worried,”
A separate investigation is being launched into the hazing ceremony by the Knights of Campanile reported by the University Times.
