Fighting RTE censorship - making an official complaint

I came across a few things on Facebook about complaining over RTE bias and today I saw some more material and folks talking about the same so here is an overview of the process. If you dont like RTE bias or other media sources' treatment of Sinn Fein then politely and firmly challenge them. Use the mechanisms in place and within which they must react to put pressure on them. Who knows a multiple of favourable jdgements and things could change very quickly. Everyone can play their part.

Hope this helps some of you get complaints about RTE impartialty and force them to treat SF fairly.

For Broadcasters the relevant body is the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland

Complaining to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland:

(1) http://www.bai.ie/broadcasting_complaints.html

Information on their site about the  complaints process

The Complaint Form to use


I would suspect the categories objectivity; impartiality in news , and fairness and objectivity, impartiality in current affairs would be the main ones relevant here.

Once you identify a broadcast that you believes infringes one of the above then you have under 30 days from the date of broadcast to submit your complaint.


(2) http://www.bai.ie/broadcasting_complaints_complaintprocess.html

When you complete the form it can be mailed, faxed or emailed.

Your must inform the BAI of the name of the programme/advertisement, station, date & time of the broadcast and what legislative requirement/code you feel the broadcaster has not adhered to


The Station name is like : RTE One.

The legislative requirement would be: Broadcasting Act 2009, section 48 (1)(a)(fairness, objectivity and impartiality in current affairs)


Programme name, date and time would be unique of course but make sure you use the correct name, date and time.
Seeing as how its impartiality thats the issue then that seems the best to use. Scroll down to the bottom to see some of the relevant legislation. Full link here - Irish broadcasting act
 
The specific point on which most complaints related to bias or impartiality against SF would be relate to F, O and I. In the making of any complaint it may be useful to repeat the language used by the BAI - they will have a language they use when assessing complaints and phrasing it using their language should be of benefit.


From the BAI.ie it states : Fairness, Objectivity and Impartiality: There is a requirement that all news broadcast by a broadcaster is reported and presented in an objective and impartial manner and without any expression of the broadcaster’s own views. In the treatment of current affairs, including matters which are either of public controversy, or the subject of current public debate, broadcasters must ensure that they are fair to all interests concerned and that the broadcast material is presented in an objective and impartial manner and without any expression of the broadcaster’s own views


That paragraph is effectively the rules within which your complaint will be considered. In order to have a successful complaint then you would need to point out how the broadcaster failed in one of those criteria.

The BAI in turn will evaluate the complaint see and the programme to determine that "every reasonable effort to present a range of significant viewpoints to the matters under discussion and be fair to all interests concerned" has been made. Again a statement within your complaint that it was your belief that broadcaster x on programme Y did not make reasonable efffort to present different view points/ establish impartiality/etc would help to place your complaint within a suitable framework.

The BAI committee may choose to either fully accept, partialy accept or reject your complaint once it gets to the end process so it may be worthwhile specifiying a number of elements to your complaint as done in this example. These case records would prove useful templates for preparing a complaint

It would also seem to be a good idea that the segments of the programme which your complaint is centered around is referenced in your complaint i.e at 14:36 into the show the presenter said ...
This approach would help focus the committee's evaluation to certain areas which they should treat. The whole show though should still remain an element of a complaint as otherwise it may be they will reject the stated instances and a good case might be lost.
 
what hapens when you make a complaint: It will get sent to RTE who will have to reply .

Their response can either be accepted or rejected by the person making the complaint i.e you. In order for your complaint to go to the BAI's excutive complaint forum then you would have to write to the BAI and confirm you are unhappy at the broadcasters response. Once thats done they will analyse your case seriously, discuss it and determine whether they will formally make a judgement against the broadcaster in question. In order to make an impact on the broadcasting policy of RTE a successful formal judgement , or a series of such judgements would be needed meaning that rejecting the broadcasters response in order to achieve a formal review of your complaint would appear the best way to ensure RTE abandoned its biased policy.

as per the BAI.ie :
Initial consideration: if you are not happy with the response to your complaint, you can inform the BAI and your complaint will be given initial consideration by the BAI's Executive Complaint Forum. In this regard, all written material on file, together with the relevant recording of the broadcast will be considered in a collagaite manner by the Forum. If the Forum determines that the issues as raise by you are not borne out by the broadcasting content, the complaint will be considered resolved. If the Forum decides that there are complaint issues borne out by the broadcasting content which require further consideration, the complaint will be referred to the Compliance Committee for assessment.

Compliance Committee: In assessing a complaint, the Authority considers all written material on file together with the relevant broadcast material. The issues are discussed in a collegiate manner at a meeting of the Compliance Committee. If the Committee agrees with the complaint, it will be upheld. If the Committee disagrees, the complaint will be rejected.

A copy of the decision will be sent to the complainant and the broadcaster before its publication

The legislation also provides that broadcasters must broadcast decisions of the Compliance Committee where a complaint has been fully or partially upheld. Broadcasts of this nature must be made within 21 days of the Compliance Committee issuing its decision




48 a

) a complaint that in broadcasting news given by it and specified in the complaint, a broadcaster did not comply with one or more of the requirements of section 39(1)(a) and (b) (

b ) a complaint that in broadcasting a programme specified in the complaint, a broadcaster either did not comply with one or more of these requirements or was in breach of  the prohibition contained in section 39(1)(d)

(
C  ) a complaint that on an occasion specified in the complaint, there was an encroachment by a broadcaster contrary to section 39(1)(e)
d  ) a complaint that on an occasion specified in the complaint,

a broadcaster failed to comply with a provision of a broadcasting code providing for the matters referred to
in section 42(2)(a) to (d) and section 42(2)(f), (g) and (h)

(2) A complaint under subsection (1) shall be in writing and be
made to the Compliance Committee not more than 30 days after—
a  ) in case the complaint relates to one broadcast, the date of the broadcast,(

b ) in the case of 2 or more unrelated broadcasts, the date of the earlier or earliest, as the case may be, of those broadcasts, or
(
c

) in case the complaint relates to 2 or more related broadcasts of which at least 2 are made on different dates, the later or latest of those dates.

(3) The Compliance Committee may, at their discretion, refer the complaint in the first instance to the broadcaster, for consideration in accordance with a code of practice prepared under
section 47(3)
 Section 39:

a

) all news broadcast by the broadcaster is reported and

presented in an objective and impartial manner and without

any expression of the broadcaster’s own views,

(
b

) the broadcast treatment of current affairs, including

matters which are either of public controversy or the subject

of current public debate, is fair to all interests concerned

and that the broadcast matter is presented in an

objective and impartial manner and without any

expression of his or her own views, except that should it

prove impracticable in relation to a single broadcast to

apply this paragraph, two or more related broadcasts may

be considered as a whole, if the broadcasts are transmitted

within a reasonable period of each other,

Ar muin na muice

Labhair Darren Mac an Phríora le Comh. Críona Ní Dhálaigh faoi bpolaisaí ainmnithe nua a mbeidh ag teacht i bhfeidhm i gCathair Bhaile Átha Cliath.

Link

Glorious leader gains recognition despite an ungrateful people

According to Newsweek magazine sth. Ireland is ruled by one of the World's great leaders. A man who has managed to win some serious respect in international circles.

Newsweek has, maybe for the craic, listed Brian Cowen as no. 5 in a list of 10 impressive world leaders.

Instead of calling him the Big Ignorant Fu$%er From Offaly he shall now be know as The Fiscal Taskmaster.  Brian and his "able Finance Minister have pushed through austerity packages drastic enough to win the admiration of the international community, raised taxes, and slashed some public salaries by more than 10 percent. But the Irish aren't showing much gratitude".

Could that be because our economy is on life support, our young emigrating and our old people being treated like second class citizens all so we can bail out the bould Brian's developer and banker friends.

If Newsweek likes Brian Cowen for his slash and burn, bail out the boys who gave FF money, approach then they will love Brian Lenihan - a finance minister who comes from the "We had to destroy the village in order to save it" school of finance.

Its the True spirit of Republicanism Roysh.

Only a few days ago we were wondering why in God's name would the Irish Times be a recruiting Sgt. for Afghanistan. Some redemption for the self styled paper of record today. Fintan o'Toole is amazed at the strange spectacle of a former PD talking about the idea of a Republic. Bear in mind that while Fintan might not be all that bad he is apparently not the flavour of the month at the Irish Times who find his left wing leanings at odds with their own agenda.

Fintan writes:

I WAS very disappointed to read Ross O'Carroll-Kelly in The Irish Times on Saturday. It's not that Ross hasn't been in flying form of late. It's just that I was hoping to confirm that the author had pulled a fine satiric stunt and persuaded Madam to move the column to the front page on Friday.

The idea of Michael McDowell addressing a private audience at the Kildare Street and University Club about "true republicanism" just had to have been dreamt up by Ross's father and his sidekick Hennessy. It has all the hilarious absurdity of their myopic south Dublin self-regard.
But alas, no. There was Ross on his usual Saturday pedestal. Michael really was thrilling the private diners with flirtatious intimations of his own patriotic duty to save the Republic

And isn't it so typical of the PDs and their ilk that plans to save the country are worked out at private dinners with no doubt champagne, stories about who pulled a mulligan on the 18th hole and how the country was too small for all of us.

Fintan correctly identifies what will be one of the central themes of the next 5 years - the idea of the Republic. Already there has been a ongoing debate in the Times about a new Irish Republic. A discussion which Gerry Adams has been part of. The idea of the Republic is pervasive through out the south's political vocabulary with everyone claiming a piece of the action - even Fine Gaelers and the PDs. Imagine how bad it will get once Fianna Fail go into opposition.

But Fintan spots the one weakness in Republican McDowell's plans:

Michael wouldn't recognise a republic if he shared a cell in Thornton Hall with it for 10 years.

And isnt Thornton hall Prison the place to look for PD/FF Republicanism. At €200k an acre of farmland for a prison that wont be open until about 2014 but still costs 125k a year. €3o million for a site worked €6 million. Shop around as Mary Harney used tell us.

Usefully o'Toole then examines what the essence of a Republic should be and tries to examine recent events against its benchmark.

"A republic is an entity in which reasoned dissent and open debate about public policy are highly valued."

 In contrast look at  how McDowell censored reports, crushed the Center for Public Inquiry.

"A republic is a system in which public service is undertaken with a certain humility."

Look at the excesses of his former leader Mary Harney and her circle of buddies in Fas who showed all the humility of Marie Antoinette.

But the final nail in the coffin of this dissident Republicans can be seen 'In 2004 – rather deliciously while serving as minister for equality – he told the Irish Catholic that "a dynamic liberal economy like ours demands flexibility and inequality in some respects to function". It was such inequality "which provides incentives".'

So much for the Republic of McDowell. Are Fine Gael daft enough to bring him back? They might as well get Sean Fitz. back into Anglo.

9XYHYCXK7E6W

A Master class in spin

Today was a fairly normal day in Ireland. Nothing of note really happened did it!

Certainly nothing happened in comparison to the terrible news thats coming out of Haiti.

On every newspaper, television and radio station there is going to be wall to wall focus on the disaster. And we will all watch it. Not out of a morbid desire or some strange car-crash voyeurism but because as normal people we will watch this and feel a deep empathy and sorrow for the suffering of other people.

You'd think that most people would think the same. Well unfortunately they dont. Some people look at this as a useful disaster and they think every cloud has a silver lining.

Looking at BreakingNews.ie I was struck by a series of related posts.


At 12:25 Minister Mary Harney "announced the roll out of a bowel cancer screening programme which kills around 930 people here every year."

Hmm! Fair play the Govt. Doing the right thing. I am impressed.

But wait...there is more:

At 12:32 Mary Mary strides once more across the media like a colossus with another missive:

"The Health Minister has today announced that she is reversing the decision not to roll out the cervical cancer vaccine for secondary school students."

Oh! So they climbed down did they. But at least they are also doing the right thing. And so rather than this being a craven climb down we know have a positive cancer detection strategy. Rather than caving we now have Harney the leader. Aint she the bomb.

That this "leadership" was on the 1:00 news did no harm to Harney or the govt. A climb down became a positive and a problem was neutered. Best of all nobody was going to focus on this too much. Because of Haiti it was just accepted and the news moves on.

Next it was the turn of fellow Fianna Failer John Gormley.

No sooner was the 1:00 clock news show over than John boy was ready to roll. There was just enough time to make the tea and do the dishes after Dinner before he started his bit.

At 14:23 modernising John confirmed that "Dubliners will directly elect a Mayor this year.Environment Minister John Gormley has announced the capital's citizens will go to the polls in June. The job will command the same salary as a Government minister."

Who could not be impressed. This was the Greens as they want us to see them. The party modernising the southern state's dated institutions by coming up with a trendy Mayor idea. I was in awe but John didnt stop there. He was on his bike ...


At 14:46 decisive, honest, reforming John came out "to limit junkets for Councillors. Green Party leader John Gormley says he is determined to end the "abuse" of Councillors attending too many conferences."

Thats the kind of Greens we wanted to see. The Greens we once believed in etc etc. I could almost see myself voting Greens at the next election. Their story was beginning to get some traction at some level.The Greens love pretending they are a modernising force. And today they piled it on trying to get that message into our head.

But the coup de grace was at 18:25 because at that hour Breakingnews.ie reported that "Ireland is sending 80 tonnes of emergency supplies to Haiti following Tuesday's devastating earthquake.The aid will be distributed to 8,000 families through charities Concern and GOAL who are working on the ground there."

And thats only right and good to see but wait whats this at end:

"Some 35 members of the Government's Rapid Response Team are also on standby to travel to the stricken region."

The Governmant's Rapid reaction force? Excuse me? Who the hell is that? Or do they instead mean the southern Irish state's rapid reacion force. Because by christ whats it got to do with the those parasites sitting around the cabinet table. Still, pile it on! If it makes the govt. look good they'll do it.

Today Mary Harnney and John Gormley took advantage of a disaster to stack their messages so as to command attention at news time. Nothing could compare with Haiti but by stacking the messages they could command some air time and sell their messge to the people. Mary turned a negative into a positive and Gormley used today to reboot his parties image and once more push out the message that the Greens are reforming and modernising.

Is this nasty. Yeah of course it is but by god they are slick operators.

Today was a master class in media and ultimately voter manipulation.

Link Backs: Political Messages

Over paid, Over here and Over us.

Over paid, Over here and Over us.

The Sindo, a paper that champions all that is vacuous, petty, inward looking and elitist in southern society, is not a paper I have much time for. And while they continue to have mostly insufferable journos sometimes, just sometimes, they end up putting together an article that highlights something of genuine interest. (Bear with me! I know thats a big claim).

Their article, (I wont link to it on principle) is a review of the pay of the semi-state bodies CEOs and also of the performance of the same.

Dublin Airport Authority:
Its CEO got €638,000 last year from the DAA. Usefully the article compares that salary with the British Airport equivalent which is about 5 times bigger than the DAA. Yet they only pay about 15% more for that role. The manager of the huge Schipol airport earned only about 78K more than the Dublin Airport CEO even though its twice the size. But the Dublin CEO must be worth it because while doing that job he also works as a non-executive director with Allied Irish Banks. Cut back on your hours a chara and give someone else a chance at a job. (As an aside wouldn’t it be a nice policy to bar retiring politicians from taking directorships for a period. I personally would not like to see Mary Harney retire and go straight onto a Health company’s board. Does such a restriction already exist?)

Dublin Port Authority:
Their most famous employee used be Bertie’s good friend Joe Burke. Their CEO Mr. Connellan got €299,000 in 2008. Port of London which handles twice the tonnage pays their lad €203,000. How do you save 50K here. Well according to the rules of the market you sack Mr. Connellan and offer the lad from London 249K. That’s 50,000 saved and you would have a much more experienced candidate in the position. But hey clearly this has nothing to do with the market so even if you are a gung ho free market maniac then this situation will stick in your craw.

RTE: Cathal Goan gets a cool €380k a year. The BBC Boss gets 2.5 times that to run 8 tv channels, 10 “national” radio stations, 20 local stations with revenue of about €5.2 Billion in an outfit bigger. Cathal Goan might not like to hear it but even by the standards of our neighbours he is overpaid. Can anyone tell me with a serious face that we couldn’t drop 100k off that salary can get someone as good or as bad? What about Pat Kenny?

3 clear examples and if you look at their wages from a left perspective then they are crassly wasteful and too high; but even if you are all about the free market then you cannot consistently argue for such high wages so clearly out of wack with the market. There is no basis to it! When people in the Sunday Independent start to argue the same point then its fairly obvious that there is a sentiment in the state for change. Although an outfit like the Sindo would be more interested in managing any change so as to limit any progress as much as possible. Their agenda is not the same as the Irish peoples.

It was recently commented that any party that could credibly argue a set of policies that gave voice to that demand for change would make hay at the next election. I agree with that. There is a hunger for change out there but will that anger get meaningfully channelled or will media outlets like the Sindo help fritter it away. How does a party like SF argue for meaningful change in this state when conservative media outlets begin to push the same message but with the intention of thwarting meaningful change and only delivering the bare minimum. As desire for change grows larger and larger the constant repositioning of rightist and centrist parties undercuts the left effectively ensuring that the anticipated revolution of groups like the SP are always due next year and never this year. Basically becoming wolves in left wings clothes.

To my mind overcoming this is one hell of a challenge for any progressive party.

The article also highlighted the interesting phenomenon of Bord Gais, ESB, Coillte et al all trying to get into the renewables sector. 4 state bodies all competing with each other in the one area , all hoping to undercut another arm of the state. I can see Fine Gael making hay with that when it comes to selling off semi-states in a fire sale. Rather than sell them it would be better to have a clearer vision of how these companies deliver for the state. Cutting them half-loose to fight it out with each other is little good. But then Fine Gael, same as Fianna Fail think the idea of key developmental components of our economy are much better off being owned by private, non--national, investors. Tweedledum is dead. All hail Tweedledee.

Wolfe Tone, An Uaimh agus Euskal Herria

Wolfe Tone, An Uaimh agus Euskal Herria

New Media such as podcasting, blogs, or social media such as Bebo, Facebook etc. are changing how we communicate with each other.

These types of media are radically redefining the structure of communication in the world. Where once communication was top down and you only heard what you were supposed to hear now we have a flatter model. I can ignore RTE, ignore the Irish Times and not rely on Stephen Collins of Charlie Bird to tell me what to think.

In a way we are back to the era of the pamphlet - when any man or woman could, via a single press, spread their message outside the normal channels of communication.

When Wolfe Tone wrote his pamphlet about the rupture with Spain he was disappointed to see that it had less of an effect then he expected. But he himself was immediate witness to how it shook both the supporters of the foreign govt. and the Irish who stood with them.

An occasion soon offered to give vent to my newly received opinions. On the appearance of a rupture with Spain, I wrote a pamphlet to prove that Ireland was not bound by the declaration of war, but might, and ought, as an independent nation, to stipulate for a neutrality. In examining this question, I advanced that of separation, with scarcely any reserve, much less disguise ; but the public mind was by no means so far advanced as mine, and my pamphlet made not the smallest impression. The day after it appeared, as I stood perdue in the bookseller's shop, listening after my own reputation, Sir Henry Cavendish, a notorious slave of the House of Commons, entered, and throwing my unfortunate pamphlet on the counter in a rage, exclaimed: Mr. Byrne, if the author of that work is serious, he ought to be hanged.

Sir Henry was succeeded by a Bishop, an English Doctor of Divinity, with five or six thousand a year, laboriously earned in the church. His lordship's anger was not much less than that of the other personage. Sir, said he, if the principles contained in that abominable work were to spread, do you know that you would have to pay for your coals at the rate of five pounds a ton?

Those principles did indeed spread across this entire country and they are still spreading today. Just as Tone harnessed his ingenuity, creativity and passion for a Republic to use simple technology to force the pace of change via an independent, non-sanctioned media, then surely we modern republicans can follow once again his footsteps and do the same. There is an amazing legacy of independent media argiung for the republican cause in Ireland. This is just the next chapter.

In that vein I thought I'd look at two exciting uses of technology where political discourse is bypassing and ignoring the main stream media and instead doing its own thing and talking directly to the people.

The first is:

Ar Muin na Muice, agus Peadar Toibín - 12ú Samhain -

Is é Ar Muin na Muice an clár Gaeilge de Near90FM i mBaile Átha Cliath Thoir-Thuaidh. Téann sé amach gach lá i rith na seachtaine ag 5.30 i.n. agus bíonn sé a athchraoladh ag 9.00 ar maidin chomh maith. Bíonn sé le fáil timpeall na cruinne ar an idirlíon freisin ag www.near.ie.

Tá na Comhairleoirí san Uaimh tar éis vótáil ar son rúin go mbeadh gach forbairt cónaithe nua sa bhaile ainmnithe i nGaeilge amháin. Chuir Comh. Peadar Toibín (SF) an rún síos agus labhair Darren Mac an Phríora leis faoi.

Tá an Podchraoladh anseo.

Basque Info

And the second inspiring use of new media is the Facebook group: Basque Info. They are dedicated to bringing news from the Basque world to the English speaking world.There Facebook group page states that "You can listen to Basque Info live today at 12pm on Féile FM 103.2 Belfast and tomorrow at 3.30pm on Near 90.3 FM Dublin. This week along with the news we'll be carrying out an interview with Basque analyst Inaki Soto."

It sounded like a very interesting discussion and unfortunately the broadcasts went out yesterday and today. I have not seen if they have them on podcasts but I will keep an eye out for their next broadcast. Did anyone hear it?

Their stated goal is to break the wall of silence imposed by the Spanish and French states on the Basque Country and its struggle for self-determination. Its a great idea and effective - there is good material on Herri Batasuna's new initiative and also details on the repression by the French/Spanish govts.

Its a great resource and if you are on facebook I recommend it. If you are not on facebook then what are you are waiting for :)

The only limitation to using such a media route is imagination and creativity. There are many exiting possibilities and its exciting to see new media coming to life.