Irish delegate conference Reports: Deaglán de Bréadún. Photos: Derek Speirs and Mark Maxwell Government attacked over RTE’s funding
THE IRISH government was sharply criticised over its approach to the major financial crisis at state-owned public-service broadcaster RTÉ (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) in a motion carried at the NUJ’s Irish Biennial Delegate Conference in Dublin. Proposed by the Irish
executive council, the motion condemned “the refusal of successive governments to provide adequate funding for RTÉ; the refusal to reform the outmoded licence fee collection system and the action of the current minister for communications, climate change and the environment in postponing the introduction of a new collection system for five years.” Irish secretary Séamus
Dooley said the government
he received from the office of communications minister Richard Bruton, which stated: “It is a matter for the RTÉ board and executive in the first instance to decide on the optimum strategy to meet the strategic and financial challenges the company faces”. Brady described the
had “failed in its legal and moral obligations to RTÉ” and that RTÉ management had “shown themselves to lack vision and to be inept”. Earlier at the conference,
Dooley recalled how recently deceased broadcasting legend and NUJ member Gay Byrne used to say to
politicians:"Don’t banjax the country.” Dooley added:
“I’m going to say to those who run RTÉ and
those who are to ruin RTÉ: this country needs RTÉ – you have no right to banjax it.” Ronan Brady of Dublin
Press and Public Relations Branch quoted a recent letter
comment as "a blatant abdication of responsibility”. The NUJ has launched a political lobbying campaign aimed at securing government support for RTÉ. It is the first stage in a
wider campaign supported by sister unions SIPTU and Connect and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The slogan is ‘It's your RTÉ, save it’ – in Irish, ‘Leatsa é RTÉ, sábháil é’.
Move to review The Journalist defeated
A MOTION calling for a cost-benefit analysis of the continued publication of The Journalist and a feasibility study on replacing it with a daily
online publication was narrowly defeated by five votes to four. Proposing the motion on behalf of Dublin Freelance Branch, Kieran
Fagan called for a debate as to whether producing The Journalist was the best use of the union’s limited funds.
The motion said there was “no criticism of what is recognised as a highly professional and lively publication”. It said the question was “about priorities at a time of stagnant or falling income”.
Call to beware complacency over press freedom “
A freelance video journalist was escorted out of a public meeting, amid jeers and shouts of “out, out, out”
6 | theJournalist
THERE CAN be no complacency in Ireland over press freedom, Séamus Dooley said in his report to the conference, which was on the theme ‘Defending journalism in times of crisis’. He described an incident on Achill Island where a freelance video journalist was escorted out of a public meeting, amid jeers and shouts of “out, out, out” from a minority of those attending the event. The meeting had been
called following reports that a local hotel would
be used to accommodate asylum-seekers. Dooley also highlighted the decision of Communicorp Media, owned by businessman Denis O’Brien, to ban interviews on its radio stations with Irish Times journalists as well as staff and contributors to a news website, The Currency. The NUJ complained to the
Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Dooley said: “I can confirm that our concerns are to be considered by the compliance committee of the authority.”
“
To those who run RTÉ and those who are about to ruin RTÉ: this country needs RTÉ – you have no right to banjax it
Séamus Dooley Irish secretary
MARK MAXWELL
DEREK SPIERS
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