Politics: One of Dublin's independent radio stations, FM104, yesterday carried a piece about a survey of drink prices in the capital, quoting an unnamed "political party" as its source, writes Mark Hennessy
The information had come from Fine Gael, but the station declined the opportunity to credit the party on the grounds that it might breach Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) election rules.
If the station was trying to imply that the law can look like an ass, it succeeded. FM104's caution, provoked by a fear that it could endanger its valuable licence, followed on foot of BCI edicts on Thursday to drop one news story, and to raise a red flag over another.
The action, following a complaint lodged with the BCI by Fianna Fáil's press director, Ms Olivia Buckley, was taken because, in the view of the BCI, the coverage could influence voters' choices.
Clearly, it is sensible to offer voters "a breather" as they prepare to vote: this newspaper operates such a code voluntarily. But, equally, a moratorium has to make sense.
The guidelines, which are based upon the 1988 Radio and Television Act, were drawn up for this election by the BCI, which regulates commercial radio and television stations, but not RTÉ.
They are worth quoting at some length: "There should be no coverage of candidates or electoral interest groups on broadcast media in the final 24 hours before polling commences, or while polling is under way.
"The moratorium is an additional mechanism to ensure that fairness and balance are achieved by the broadcast media during this critical period in the polling process."
So far, few would disagree.
But it goes on: "During the moratorium period, stations should ensure that broadcast output does not include any material which might be reasonably considered to have the potential to influence the outcome of the poll."
Herein lies the problem. What does "potential to influence the outcome of the poll" mean? Does anybody realistically have a chance of operating such a regulation?
Equally, does it not mean that the role of the independent regulator will inevitably be politicised, since parties in power, rather than anybody else, will always have an interest in silence?
SIPTU's condemnation of the Government's decentralisation plans is hardly new. The union has been banging on about it for months. Voters who agree presumably did so long before Thursday.
Ironically, the moratorium has already benefited Fianna Fáil. Stations on Wednesday evening stopped covering the controversy involving Dublin Lord Mayor, Royston Brady, who claimed that loyalists had abducted his father on the day before the Dublin/Monaghan bombings.
In the usual run of affairs, the story, which dominated Joe Duffy's RTÉ Liveline programme on Wednesday, would have run for another 24 hours, and taken votes off Mr Brady for every extra minute it ran.
The BCI's guidelines deal with yesterday's elections only: "They are not intended to set a precedent for other elections. The commission reserves the right to amend these guidelines if it deems it necessary or prudent to do so.
"Limiting coverage to the facts of a story and avoiding making any links to electoral interests, issues or candidates will minimise the potential to constitute a breach of the moratorium," said the BCI.
A 24-hour break in radio and television coverage, says the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, allows voters "a period for reflection" in the final stages of the campaign.
Newspapers are not covered by the restrictions: "Radio stations are not newspapers. You choose to read a paper.
"You can hear a radio walking into a shop," said BCI official Mr Andrew Robinson.
In principle, the BCI restriction makes a degree of sense in a world where the volume of "news" is increasing relentlessly, though the application of the principle can have bizarre consequences.
RTÉ operates a voluntary, more limited moratorium, which bans the broadcasting of interviews with candidates and coverage of the election campaign, but no more than that.
Yesterday, the BCI chief executive, Mr Michael O'Keeffe, insisted that it had not "blacked" reportage about SIPTU's opposition to the Government's decentralisation plans.
Instead, he said, the BCI had asked the stations to rewrite the reports to remove the political references contained within. If so, the instruction was misunderstood by all of the stations.
In future, the BCI must leave the stations, and their newsroom staff, in absolutely no doubt about what will happen during the 24-hour moratorium, even if that requires contact on the day.
However, it is easy to go to extremes here.
Equally, it is easy for people involved in politics frequently to make the mistake of thinking that the public is carefully following each and every nuance.
Ideally, Fianna Fáil's press director, Ms Buckley, who found herself in the odd position of being criticised by her uncle, Seamus Dooley of the National Union of Journalists, might have been better off to turn down the volume.
The reality is that RTÉ's radio and television election coverage will have to compete for viewers this evening with a tall, bald Italian, Signor Pierluigi Collina.
The famous referee will stride out shortly before 5 p.m. on to the turf of the Estádio do Dragão in Porto to take command of the opening game in the European Championships.
For the next three weeks, a significant majority of the Irish public will know our Zidanes from our Trezeguets, our Bobics from our Klasnics, our Del Pieros from our van Hooijdonks.
Most probably could not name a couple of MEPs.