Patricia

It’s not those "Chinese Massage" adverts they should be embarrassed about, it’s their reporting on prostitution that is shameful.

Prostitution “news” in the Irish Times is bland and unintelligent at best. More often than not it’s just anti-prostitution organisation press releases re-written.

Why is it that, when it comes to the sex industry, journalistic standards at the Irish Times drop to that of the trashiest tabloid?

In April the Irish Times covered the story of the ICI (Immigrant Council of Ireland) publishing a report on sex trafficking in Ireland. My website - Escort-Ireland.com – featured very heavily in this report. I wrote to the Irish Times immediately, to see if they’d be interested in writing a less one-sided article on the topic. Needless to say all I got back was their auto responder.

The Irish Times is not interested in what people like me who have lived and breathed the Irish sex industry for over 25 years have to say.

However what any TD says is another matter.

Last week the Irish Times reported that Roscommon-South Leitrim TD Denis Naughten has read the ICI report and believes that “mobile phones are the lifeblood of this country’s brothel-keeping and prostitution industry” and “If certain mobile numbers were to be taken off this country’s mobile phone system, that would immediately close down a huge proportion of that industry.”

This isn’t an original idea. It’s actually been doing the rounds here ever since British Telecom - frustrated with prostitutes leaving “tartcards” in their phone boxes in central London - came up with the idea in the early 1990s. It didn’t work in London then and it certainly won’t work here now.

Has everyone forgotten that it is legal to work as a prostitute in Ireland? On what grounds would phone service be withdrawn from these law abiding citizens? Who would scan the Internet day and night locating prostitute phone numbers and getting them switched off? And, if it could all be done, what would be the point of it, to drive prostitutes out of their apartments and onto the streets?

However prostitutes need not live in fear. These days you can use a UK or other foreign mobile phone in Ireland nearly as cheaply and easily as you can use an Irish one. If Ireland’s prostitutes woke up tomorrow morning to find they could no longer use Irish mobile phones, by lunchtime they’d be using foreign mobile phones, or diverting a foreign number to their “secret” Irish mobile phone or using skype or... Really in this technological age the possibilities are endless.

When Mr Naughten brought this idea up in the Dáil last week Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said it was something the gardaí could look at. In fact the gardaí have looked at it several times already. They’ve always said it is not feasible. And thank god – in this world of clueless politicians and careless journalists – someone still has some common sense!