Sinn Féin yesterday failed in its legal bid to be given more election coverage by the BBC. The party had gone to the High Court in Belfast to ask for a judicial review of a decision by BBC Northern Ireland to count some of the air-time given to the Saville inquiry as part of its election coverage.
Mr Alex Maskey of Sinn Féin had told the court in an affidavit he had complained his party was not included in the Newsline programme's election round-up on Tuesday of this week. He was informed by the corporation that a news item about Mr Martin McGuinness' appearance at the Saville inquiry counted as part of the election coverage.
The court heard that BBC guidelines ruled that non-election stories about candidates had to be considered in granting equal and fair air-time to the four main political parties in the run-up to an election.
Mr Neil Fox, for Sinn Féin, said there was "a considerable danger of a manifest injustice" if this continued. But Mr Henry Toner QC, for the BBC, said the fairness of coverage was measured over the course of a week, not on a day-to-day basis, and that only the 20-second clip of Mr McGuinness speaking after the Saville inquiry hearing counted towards this, not the entire report of the day's proceedings.
Mr Fox asked that the party's costs be paid, but Mr Justice Kerr said it was unheard of for an applicant's costs to be paid unless the case would have been successful.