RTÉ has asked the European Parliament to re-edit its advertisement promoting voting in the European elections, asking it to eliminate Yes and No images.
This follows advice from the Referendum Commission that these images, which take up about 15 seconds of the 48-second advertisement, could cause voter confusion on the referendum.
RTÉ asked the commission for its advice, and it viewed the advertisement yesterday. The chairman of the commission, Mr Justice Kearns, told a press conference that the commission thought there was a significant danger of voter confusion because of the references to Yes and No in the advertisement. He stressed that this had nothing to do with the totally separate controversy concerning the advert's depiction of a breast-feeding mother and child.
Mr Peter Feeney, head of public affairs in RTÉ, told The Irish Times that he had written to the European Parliament asking it to re-edit the advert excluding the references to Yes and No.
He said that the No references were overwhelmingly negative, and it would be unbalanced to broadcast it containing these images in the run-up to a referendum. He pointed out that the same problem existed in Denmark, where there was also a referendum on the same day as the elections, and which had also requested re-editing of the advert.