Radio chiefs seek an end to ban on political adverts

INDEPENDENT radio station owners have called on the Government to remove the ban on political advertising on radio and TV.

The Independent Broadcasters of Ireland claim the existing prohibition is outmoded and inappropriate in the internet age.

IBI chairman and chief executive of Today FM Willie O’Reilly told the organisation’s annual conference in Dublin yesterday the ban on paid political advertising was unlikely to withstand a legal challenge in the European courts.

“The simple fact is that the internet has made the ban irrelevant,” said Mr O’Reilly. He pointed out that Barack Obama’s online advertising had been influential in his victory in the US presidential election, while political parties were campaigning intensively online in the current general election in Britain.

“It is ludicrous that a political party can advertise on a radio station’s website but cannot advertise on the radio itself,” said Mr O’Reilly.

“The arbitrary exclusion of some electronic media including radio, but not others, from paid political campaigning is nonsense and it is time for our laws to be brought up to date.”

Kevin Rafter, broadcaster, lecturer in politics and media and author of a recent report on paid political advertising commissioned by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, said the internet had “made a mockery” of the ban.

“It is only a matter of time before it is challenged in the European Court of Human Rights. There is now a body of case law that would suggest the ban could be successfully challenged,” said Dr Rafter.

Labour TD Liz McManus said politicians had a fear about the impact political advertising on TV and radio could have. She is also concerned about the danger to democracy that could arise from the ability of “the people with the deepest pockets to buy elections”.

Meanwhile, the conference’s keynote speaker, singer-songwriter and Bee Gees member Robin Gibb, was unable to attend the IBI event due to the restrictions on air travel.

However, Mr Gibb – a campaigner for the preservation of copyright and royalties who is president of the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies – was able to speak to delegates via audiolink on the contentious issue of artist’s rights in the digital age.

Addressing the conference entitled Radio: Staying Alive – a reference to one of the Bee Gees’ hits – Mr Gibb called on internet service providers to engage with composers, performers and their publishers and to assume responsibility for the content from which they’ve profited for many years.