RTÉ under fire for dropping radio programme for blind

CAMPAIGNERS battling to stop RTÉ dropping its only programme devoted to the blind have set up an online petition to try to persuade the national broadcaster to change its mind.

Over 1,000 supporters have added their signatures to the Save Audioscope website (www.saveaudioscope.com), including Labour and Independent public representatives, disability workers, medical professionals, as well as blind and sighted listeners.

The 15-minute Audioscope programme aired one evening a week on RTÉ Radio and provided a forum for the discussion of issues and events relating to blindness and visual impairment. It has been broadcast under various names and different formats for 30 years.

It aired as usual up to the start of the summer break when it was revealed unofficially that the programme had been dropped from the autumn schedules.

The National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) said it had since requested talks with RTÉ but no meeting had been granted.

NCBI spokesman Eoin Dardis said the organisation was disgusted with the way RTÉ had handled the affair.

“They’re not prepared to engage with us,” he said.

“They seem to forget that they are a public service broadcaster and as such they might have consulted the public about removing a public service that people have come to depend on.”

The decision to drop the programme is part of a wide-ranging series of controversial scheduling changes made by new head of Radio 1 Ana Leddy in advance of Dublin rival, Newstalk, going national later this year.

Ms Leddy was on annual leave yesterday but a spokeswoman for RTÉ confirmed that Audioscope had been dropped and would not be returning to air. The spokeswoman said issues around visual impairment would be included in the weekly Outside The Box radio programme, which covers disability in general.

“Ms Leddy made a commitment that issues of disability will also be part of mainstream broadcasting,” she said.

However, website creator, Joe Bollard, a contributor to Audioscope, said 100,000 blind and visually impaired people deserved a programme of their own.

“If Dublin Bus have a bus route and the bus driving it is rickety, they don’t close the bus route down — they get a new bus,” he said.

“We could work out a new format. But we won’t get enough information if we’re squeezed into another programme.”