The Knights of the Campanile has rejected claims that bullying or humiliation occurred at an initiation ceremony in February, following reporting by The University Times, and has asked its members not to speak to the media about the issue.
In a letter addressed to “Fellow Knights”, published on the society’s website, Peter Ledbetter, the Master of the Knights and a notable businessperson, said the coverage of the evening, first reported on by The University Times on March 15th, was “misleading” and that such “articles are not to be taken too seriously”.
He said that The University Times’s reporting – in the course of which two reporters gained access to society president Ben Arrowsmith’s building after hearing audible sounds of hazing, and placed a recording device outside the door in order to corroborate what they could hear – “has disturbing implications for the privacy rights of all students in College”.
After the article’s publication, The University Times was met with acute backlash, with 500 hundred students signing a petition calling for a referendum to gut the paper’s funding.
“Some have sought to represent this petition as an attack on ‘freedom of the press’”, Ledbetter wrote, “but my understanding is that it actually arose from student disquiet with the University Times’ trespass, invasion of privacy, and bugging”.
“Media coverage”, he said, “has repeatedly described the Knights as an all-male College Society in a manner implying gender bias. This is inept and/or misleading journalism as the reporters involved should be aware the Knights have a sister College Society in the all-female Heraeans”.
The University Times’s reporting has been endorsed by national and international journalists and ethics bodies. The International Federation of Journalists expressed support for the paper, while Chris Frost, the Chair of the ethics council of the National Union of Journalists, said the paper’s reporting was “beyond reproach and consistent with the highest professional standards of public interest, investigative journalism”.
Ledbetter is a member of the College’s Chancellor’s Circle, a status accorded to individuals who make donations to College of between €100,000 and €1 million.
He is one of a number of high-profile members of the elite society. Last week, the Irish Times revealed that Goldman Sachs Ireland boss Hugo MacNeill, former Irish rugby player Brendan Mullin and endurance athlete Mark Pollock attended a Knights dinner in the Dining Hall last month. So too did Provost Patrick Prendergast and Senator David Norris.
