Broadcaster Eamon Dunphy and chat radio station Newstalk 106have been criticised for biased reporting of a dispute between nurses and the Health Service Executive.
The Broadcasting Complaints Commission said an interview with Irish Nurses' Organisation chief Liam Doran was unfair, unbalanced and did not give the HSE a fair right of reply.
Dunphy told listeners the HSE would not take part in a live debate on work practices of theatre nurses at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital. "We told them to go away," he then said.
He went on: "I think the public will have got the picture here. It's a propaganda war as far as they \[HSE] are concerned and which they're not even prepared to engage in debate and they ain't getting away with this anymore on this programme, neither are the politicians incidentally."
Dunphy was also criticised for giving his own opinion of HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm.
The BCC said Dunphy had failed to adequately give both sides of the argument. Michael Walsh, press officer for the HSE West, contacted the BCC after Newstalk refused to give them a chance to put their side of the story the following day.
The INO/HSE dispute was dropped to allow Dunphy's Breakfast Show to cover a major development in the Luas network.
Mr Walsh complained to the BCC that Dunphy ignored his obligation to cover a matter of current public debate in a manner fair to all interests and without expression of his own views. He said the HSE was repeatedly referred to in a hostile, sarcastic and inaccurate fashion.
Newstalk said the HSE flatly refused to join the debate with the INO but that Dunphy put their side of the argument across. The station said the HSE's policy of refraining from on air discussions made it extremely difficult for them to cover controversial debates in a manner fair to all interests.
PA