BCC clears RTÉ of Tallaght sex industry claim

THE national broadcaster has been cleared of wrongly suggesting the people of Tallaght are more inclined to be sex tourists.

This was one of a number of complaints made about RTÉ radio and television programmes aired in the last three months of 2006.

The Broadcasting Complaints Commissions rulings were released yesterday and seven grievances from members of the public were rejected.

One arose out of a comment made in a Late Late Show discussion about the growing number of Irish people travelling to Thailand to exploit its sex industry.

Pat Kenny’s guest, Dr Derek Freedman, said such was the extent of the problem Thailand should be twinned with Tallaght.

A life-long resident of Tallaght, Paul Perry, wrote to the BCC and said the comment was a smear against the good name of the town.

However, the BCC decided the statement was made because both places started with the same letter and did not imply people in the Dublin suburb had abnormal levels of sexually transmitted diseases.

“While the commission would understand the reaction of the complainant, in that he is from Tallaght, the commission believes that there was no intention to be unfair or single out a specific area.’’

The Tallaght complaint was one of seven made against programmes broadcast on RTÉ radio or television during October, November or December.

Six of these questioned RTÉ’s impartiality and dealt with topics such as the Prime Time’s coverage of the Corrib gas dispute and Liveline’s discussions on the issue of abortion.

The BCC did not find fault with any of the complaints made to it.

A spokesman for RTÉ said it was pleased to be vindicated by the latest BCC report.

“Every time the BCC meets there are certain complaints we would feel are very important for us to win because the relate to the impartial nature of our current affairs coverage.

“RTÉ takes very seriously all complaints made about it and we endeavour to have as few complaints as possible upheld by the BCC.”