Greens see red over ‘biased’ RTÉ

THE Green Party has threatened legal action against RTÉ claiming their coverage of the Nice Treaty referendum is biased towards the Yes side.

Party chairman John Gormley said they were sending a solicitor’s letter to the national broadcaster, threatening action for breaches of its public service remit.

The Government and the larger parties are pressurising RTÉ and using the prospective licence fee increase as a weapon, Mr Gormley said.

“It is so obvious that the bias exists. It seems to me there is a culture of fear in RTÉ. We want to change that,” he said.

RTÉ was kow-towing to a government whose record on public service broadcasting has been appalling, Mr Gormley said.

“The recent revelations in relation to Ray Burke’s treatment of RTÉ make the station’s actions all the more puzzling,” he said.

But a spokesman for RTÉ rejected the claim of bias and said the station was continuing to fulfil its duty to be balanced.

Equal attention and coverage was being given to both the Yes and No side, the spokesman said. In debates on television and radio, equal numbers of speakers from the Yes and No camps were present, he said.

“We feel it is an unwarranted attack on the integrity of our journalists and it is unfair on them. We have a statutory obligation to be fair and impartial,” the spokesman said.

Refuting the allegation RTÉ’s concerns over the licence fee were hanging over the coverage, the spokesman said the content of the news bulletins was not influenced by RTÉ’s corporate activities.

Green Party leader Trevor Sargent said that, if ratified, the Nice Treaty would disadvantage smaller states and the applicant countries.

The larger countries were pressing for the Nice Treaty to be ratified because it would swing power back in their favour and would victimise the smaller countries, he said.

“The larger states have been biting their lips for years accepting the equality of treatment the smaller states have received.

“This time around through Nice it’s payback time and the smaller states are being put back in their box. Of course, the smaller countries are not the only victims in this process. Democracy is also a victim,” Mr Sargent said.

Ireland’s EU Commissioner David Byrne accused the Green Party of being out of step with their colleagues throughout Europe.

The EU Food and Safety Commissioner said German Green Party leader, Joschka Fischer, had called for a Yes vote in the Nice.