Candidate to take legal action over ‘unfair’ RTÉ coverage
Dublin City councillor and General Election candidate for Dublin Central, Ciaran Perry has written to the national broadcaster accusing RTÉ of breaching the principle of fairness established by the Irish Courts.
Mr Perry said, “RTÉ’s policy and practice of presenting some candidates as also-rans is in breach of the spirit of both the High Court and Supreme Court judgments in relation to fair treatment. These principles are well established in Irish law. In McKenna v An Taoiseach and Coughlan v RTÉ the courts held that equality and fairness were essential requirements of our “constitutional right to a democratic process”.
The Independent Left councillor said that in order to ensure free, fair and democratic elections it is vital that this issue be addressed. “Considering the importance of this matter for this and future elections and the unsatisfactory response to date from RTÉ, I have decided to take legal advice and intend to challenge RTÉ’s position on this matter in the courts.”
He added, “During this campaign, successive opinion polls have shown Independents to be a popular choice of the electorate and it is grossly unfair that any media outlet would try and undermine that support. As a sitting councillor elected with more than 14% of the first preference vote in the 2009 Local Elections my omission from media coverage on RTÉ could be classified as unfair.”
RTÉ stated that it decides upon which election candidates to feature partially due to the assessment of un-named “authoritative commentators’ and with a bias towards incumbents who have previously held office.
Outlining the station’s 12 criteria in adjudging election candidates coverage RTÉ also stated that the “minimum amount of attention which may be required to give to candidates from smaller parties to make their participation meaningful” was also considered.
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