The former presidential candidate, Dana, Rosemary Scallon, has suggested "political interference" for RTE's decision to cancel her appearance on the Kenny Live programme tonight.
The singer, who is widely expected to stand for election to the European Parliament in June, heard of the decision yesterday morning from the producers of Pat Kenny's talk show. She has not yet formally declared herself to be a candidate.
The order is understood to have come from the managing director of RTE Television, Mr Joe Mulholland.
Yesterday an RTE spokeswoman justified the decision by saying that coming up to election time the station had to be even-handed in its approach to all candidates.
"This being the case it would not be appropriate to be giving preference in respect of airtime to one candidate over another," she said.
It is widely expected that Dana will stand in Connacht-Ulster, the constituency where she astounded pundits by securing just over 17 per cent of the vote during the presidential election in 1997. She has recently bought some land in the State.
Speaking from a Dublin hotel yesterday she told The Irish Times the decision "reeks a wee bit of political interference, because there doesn't seem to be any other explanation . . . I have not decided about the European elections one way or the other. I am not a politician until I am elected. It still said `Entertainer', not `Politician', on my passport the last time I looked."
"The technical term for what RTE is doing to Dana is restraint of trade," her spokesman said.
Dana asked why RTE had waited until yesterday to cancel when it had known about her planned appearance for the past three weeks.
She refused to confirm that she intended to stand but said the incident had made her think even more strongly about the candidacy. The closing date for candidates is May 17th.
Three weeks ago the Broadcasting Complaints Commission upheld an objection to an interview conducted with Dana by Vincent Browne on RTE Radio 1 in October 1997.
A source close to the singer, who has lived in Birmingham, Alabama, for several years said that if she did decide to stand, the publicity surrounding the RTE decision represented "the best possible start to her campaign".