The Godfather of Irish politics

With the Irish Forum on Broadcasting having now completed its report, it will be interesting to see if RTE's almost complete dominance in the Irish broadcasting market will finally be tackled.

Whether we like it or not, RTE has through its range of activities become what could aptly be described as the Godfather of Irish politics. Political careers are made and ended and elections decided by the manner and coverage they receive from RTE.

One has only to recall the last election with the various political parties lining up to curry favour with RTE to realise the influence RTE must have with the Irish electorate.

Further the controls imposed on RTE's ability to abuse its position at times such as elections and referenda are minimal. The Broadcasting Complaints Commission, which it should be noted imposes ridiculous short timescales for making complaints, has quite incredibly no power to reprimand RTE when it breaches the broadcasting guidelines. Further, even if it did it find RTE guilty of bias it would very likely be after an election or referenda when, of course, it will not be possible to remedy the situation. I would suggest that the time has come for the Government to grasp this nettle and examine why exactly we tolerate this situation and indeed maintain RTE's monopoly with a licence fee, in an era when competition and freedom of expression is supposedly a healthy thing.

Mairtin O'Maolruaidh

Polkeen,

Tuam Road,

Galway.