Broadcasting proposals - Objectivity clause is a Trojan horse

There is a certain irony in the fact that in the very week that Margaret Thatcher died, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland announced it is to ask the Government to legislate to make a register of financial interests for radio or television presenters mandatory so any conflict of interest might be avoided.

The broadcasting authority also wants, in a new code on “fairness and objectivity”, to preclude broadcasters expressing any opinions in a current affairs debate, reducing them to some sort of silent, deferential eunuchs directing studio traffic.

Thatcher, admire her or loathe her, changed our world because she had the courage of her convictions and the energy to try to have them made real by changing the policies she opposed.