Newstalk and RTÉ coverage of the unvaccinated was ‘editorially legitimate’, says BAI

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) has rejected 11 complaints that Newstalk’s The Pat Kenny Show was prejudiced against people who did not avail of the Covid-19 vaccine and one complaint made against RTÉ One’s Claire Byrne Live for a similar reason.

One aspect of the complaints concerned Mr Kenny’s comment, made during an interview with Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly on October 28th, 2021, that society was being “too easy” on people who chose not to be vaccinated because they believed conspiracy theories about the vaccine rather than vaccine science. Complainants argued this was inflammatory, discriminatory and potentially harmful.

But the BAI’s compliance committee found that Mr Kenny and his Newstalk programme had not infringed the provisions of the Broadcasting Act 2009, its code of fairness, objectivity and impartiality in news and current affairs or its code of programme standards.

The committee concluded that the types of issues raised by the presenter in comments and questions to the Minister were “relevant and appropriate in the context” and “editorially legitimate”. It noted that public policy at the time meant there were different public health restrictions in place for people based on their vaccination status.

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“The committee is of the view that it is editorially legitimate to question a Government Minister on its decisions and plans in relation to such public policies and such content has an important role in informing the public on matters of national policy,” it said.

People who are not vaccinated do not represent a particular group in society that is given specific protection under either equality legislation or the provisions of its code of programme standards, it added.

The complaint made against the episode of Claire Byrne Live broadcast on October 18th also concerned a segment about people who chose not to have a Covid-19 vaccination, some — but not all — of whom were referred to as “hardcore cranks”. The complainant argued that Ms Byrne’s interviewee, journalist Joe O’Shea, based his view that the unvaccinated should be “compelled” to stay at home on personal bias and that this opinion should not have been broadcast.

The BAI compliance committee again found that the content of the programme was “editorially legitimate” and not in breach of any legislation or codes. It noted that the interview with Mr O’Shea, who highlighted the risk unvaccinated people posed to others, followed the presentation of poll results showing 69 per cent of respondents were in favour of increased restrictions on the unvaccinated. His remarks were later put by Ms Byrne to another contributor, a professor of immunology.

“The committee did not believe the audience would have been misled about the issues under discussion and was satisfied the subject was presented in an objective and impartial manner and was fair to all interests concerned.”

A further 16 complaints were rejected by the BAI’s executive complaints forum. These included an additional three complaints alleging unfairness and bias in discussions about the unvaccinated and two complaints made by people concerned about the airing of “anti-vax” misinformation. Other rejected complaints related to coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine, abortion legislation, women’s safety, Sinn Féin, an interview with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and badger vaccination.

The Ronan Collins Show’s decision to play the hymn O Holy Night on December 8th, 2021, proved objectionable to one listener, who complained that lyrics referring to non-Christians being “in sin and error pining” stigmatised him and other non-Christians.

The hymn’s line “fall on your knees” was also said to be disrespectful of human dignity, while the complainant further argued that the line “and in His name, all oppression shall cease” was inappropriate and unjustifiable, noting examples of historical oppression that were carried out in the name of Christianity.

By repeatedly playing the hymn, RTÉ Radio 1 was “actively condoning and sponsoring the lies, false promises, stigmatisation and abuse of power” contained within it, is how the broadcasting regulator summarised the complaint.

However, its executive forum dismissed it. While “some non-Christians may be offended” by lyrics of this popular hymn, none of the broadcast content “could reasonably be regarded as stigmatising non-Christians or supporting or condoning discrimination against non-Christians”.

The BAI’s broadcasting complaints update, which is available on its website, did not specify which recording of O Holy Night was played on Mr Collins’s show on the day in question.