A BROADCASTING Commission would be good for RTE by ensuring the station's autonomy and protecting it as a programme maker, said the Minister for Arts Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins.
Introducing his proposals for new broadcasting legislation yesterday, the Minister said suspicions had been expressed in the past that RTE had not dealt fairly with its competition. The proposed legislation would clear up any confusion.
The Minister presented the heads of his broadcasting legislation in a 66-page booklet, in English and Irish, following its approval by Cabinet.
The heads will now be drafted into a Bill to be introduced into the Oireachtas.
At a press conference yesterday Mr Higgins admitted that the Bill would not be ready to be debated this side of an election. He defended his decision to publish the Bill by saying that, whatever decision he took, he would be criticised. If he did not bring forward legislation, he would be accused of doing nothing; if he did, he would be accused of electioneering.
He realised there was a need to review Irish broadcasting legislation when he was examining specific broadcasting legislation in 1992. That had been done and the proposals were the result of that review.
Central to his proposals is an Irish Broadcasting Commission. This will replace both the RTE Authority and the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC).
The RTE Authority, established in 1960, will become the board of the national public broadcast service.
The commission will have six full-time, paid members. Mr Higgins said they could be appointed in a similar way to the director-general of RTE. An outside body would produce a shortlist and successful candidates would then be interviewed. Final approval would rest with the Oireachtas.
Mr Higgins said he understood the apprehension within RTE. This was new legislation, and it would change RTE, but he believed it made RTE stronger, by allowing it to concentrate on programme-making and commissioning, without having to be a regulatory body.
The Bill defines RTE as a public service broadcaster and states that it will remain in receipt of the licence fee. However, the commission will be able to insist on quite major changes within RTE, including the way it presents its accounts. It can establish a separate transmission authority, taking from RTE one of its primary functions, the transmission of programmes, as well as the making and commissioning of programmes.
The Irish Broadcasting Commission will be a regulatory and policy-making body that is at arm's length from government and detached from the actual operation of a broadcasting service.
Some of the Minister's functions will be devolved to the commission, as will the regulatory functions of the IRTC.
"The overriding function of the new commission will be to endeavour to ensure that the number, categories, structures of, and arrangements for broadcasting services best serve the needs of the people of Ireland, bearing in mind our traditions, our language and our cultures and respecting the distinction between the roles and objectives of public service and independent broadcasters."
The position of RTE as the national public service broadcaster "will be enshrined in the legislation and its autonomy in editorial, programme-making and operational matters will be strengthened," he said.
MAIN POINTS:
THE key proposals in the broadcasting legislation are:
. A definition of public service broadcasting as a service provided by a publicly owned broadcaster.
. A statement that public service broadcasting is central to the broadcasting services in Ireland.
. The establishment of a single regulatory and policy-making body, the Broadcasting Commission. It will have wide powers to oversee Irish broadcasting, including the regulation of local and community-services on cable, MMDS and satellite.
. The RTE Authority will be a statutory body to be charged with operating the present RTE services consistent with the general policy objectives adopted by the new Commission and of the new legislation.
. The establishment of Teilifis na Gaeilge as a separate statutory body.
. The Commission to be made up of five persons and a chairperson, who will be interviewed and subject to approval by the Oireachtas. The members will be paid and full-time.
. The abolition of the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) and its functions applied to the Commission.
. The Commission will be empowered to contribute up to 25 per cent of the start-up grant to news services under certain conditions.
. The Minister is proposing to introduce measures designed to ensure that the rights to broadcast coverage of major sporting and other events do not become the exclusive right of subscription or pay-per-view services but are available to all.