Share of RTÉ airtime biased toward other parties, claims FF

Fianna Fáil is demanding more airtime for its representatives on RTÉ news and current affairs programmes.

The party has complained to the national broadcaster about the amount of “voice” it is getting in comparison with others, particularly Labour and Sinn Féin.

Fianna Fáil has conducted an assessment which it has presented to RTÉ and which, the party says, demonstrates its case.

The assessment is based on the number of appearances that Fianna Fáil representatives have made on Prime Time — RTÉ’s flagship current affairs programme — in a 16-month period before and after last year’s general election.

Fianna Fáil claims that in the eight months before the election, when the party was in government, the share of the voice was “clearly biased in favour of the opposition”. In the eight months immediately after the election, with the party in opposition, this “bias” was “dramatically reversed”.

“Despite identical Dáil representation, Labour enjoyed 21.6% share of voice before the election, compared to Fianna Fáil’s 10.1% after the election,” the submission states.

“Despite having an approximately 25% larger representation in the [current] Dáil than Sinn Féin [19 TDs versus 14], the two parties have been given the same access to Prime Time.”

The submission goes on to claim that Prime Time “is not an isolated example”. A party source yesterday stressed that Fianna Fáil was not suggesting that RTÉ presenters were prejudiced against the party. “This wasn’t a qualitative assessment — we’re not saying presenters are biased. This was purely a quantitative assessment based on the share of voice.”

Asked about the perception in Leinster House that Fianna Fáil simply lacked strong media performers following its near-wipeout in the election, and that this could have accounted for a fall-off in airtime, he said he did not believe that constituted “any defence whatsoever”.

“If you were to take that argument — and I don’t take that argument— you could apply it to Labour before the election,” he said, adding RTÉ had a duty to be “objective and impartial”.

Fianna Fáil general secretary Sean Dorgan and communications director Pat McParland met with the director general of RTÉ, Noel Curran, last November and presented him with the submission.

RTÉ, when asked to comment, said its position was as had been set out at the weekend. The Sunday Independent had quoted an RTÉ spokesman as saying: “RTÉ does not accept the contention regarding party biases. All political parties make representations to RTÉ, expressing concerns about frequency of appearance of their representatives or airtime given to policy positions.”