Irish State Broadcaster Censors

“Britain out of Ireland” and “Execution of 1916 leaders” were some of the protest placards that you may have seen today, the day the British monarch, queen Elizabeth, arrived on Irish soil, but only if you were watching British television.

Our State Broadcaster RTE neglected to show any footage of the protests as they were happening outside The Garden of Remembrance, during the playing of ‘God Save the Queen’ in the Garden, and elsewhere as the queen made her way around the capital city.

British broadcasters, BBC, SKY and Channel 4 all showed footage of Irish protesters but there wasn’t a peep of a placard on Irish television.

A spokesperson for RTE says, “we will cover where the queen goes but we probably won’t diverge from that. It’s not that we have a policy against [showing protests], but we will be just concentrating on Trinity and The Garden of Remembrance etc and nothing besides.”

A spokesperson from the Broadcasting commission of Ireland says, “ We cannot act on what’s missing from coverage, only what’s been broadcast so this is an issue fore the broadcaster.”

The State broadcaster, as funded by the Irish people, is responsible for informing the Irish of what happens in this country and abroad but on so many occasions it has failed to do so.

In the past, this State broadcaster, has been a proven propaganda and censorship tool for government and as such, effects what we know and what we don’t know.

When the Troubles in the North of Ireland broke in 1960, the then-government passed legislation (the Broadcasting Act) that would allow RTE to ban dissidents from the airwaves and television.

Every angle of every story to do with the Troubles was covered except the angle of the republicans. Every member of Republican party, Sinn Fein, was excluded from broadcast, regardless of the subject on which they were speaking. And employees of RTE were both fired and arrested for allowing the dissidents to relate too much on-air.

That legislation has since been altered but RTE is still an agency that employs a high level of censorship.

Under Section 39 (1) of the Broadcasting Act 2009 : (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…

It seems these obligations have been breached on every level

On the 21st of November 2010, a press conference took place where the then-Taoiseach, Brian Cowen and the-finance minister, Brian Lenihan discussed the points of an IMF bailout.

The RTE broadcast of the conference was cut short when journalist, Vincent Browne started firing questioning the men. Meanwhile, BBC News and Sky News continued to broadcast the remaining 2/3 minutes of the interview.

Another occasion of censorship was for all to see on an episode of current affairs programme, Frontline.

Presenter, Pat Kenny, attempts to

silence the dark-haired woman in the audience http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhSp-EnXOZ4 (from about 32 seconds)

She brings up the subject of RTE’s failure to cover the recent meeting with the controversial Trilateral Comission and Bilderberg Committee, which was chaired by Peter Sutherland. World hard-hitters David Rockerfeller and Hillary Kissinger were also there present.

This is news and RTE went further than non-coverage of the event, but attempted to silence its exposure.

The political interests of the government have been present within our national broadcaster since it was set-up, and it continues to be.