IT IS not surprising that there has been a general welcome for the Broadcasting Bill published this week by Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan. Its key proposal - the establishment of a single regulator for public and commercial broadcasters - has, after all, been accepted wisdom for well over a decade now.
The idea of a "super-authority" was first put forward by Michael D Higgins when he was the relevant minister in the mid-1990s. It was repeated in the abortive 2006 Broadcasting Bill.
Its reappearance thus smacks more of a catching up with lost time than of radical innovation. In a rapidly changing media environment, where traditional broadcasting is increasingly challenged by the internet and by the coming switch to digital TV, the slow pace of political response has been especially deplorable.
Mr Ryan's proposals are, nonetheless, a genuine attempt to create a regulatory structure adequate to the conditions of the 21st century. The task of the Bill is to strike a balance between independence and regulation. The public interest demands, on the one hand, that the broadcast media are free to criticise governments and institutions and to challenge received ideas and tastes. It requires, on the other hand, that the power of these media is exercised fairly and responsibly and that legitimate competition for audiences does not become a race towards the lowest common denominator.
Some questions flow from these competing demands. If an Oireachtas committee is a good mechanism for appointing some members of the authority at arm's length from government, why is it not good enough for appointing all of them? Why should there be specific provision in the Bill for the current chief executive of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland to occupy the key role of chief executive of the new authority without public competition for the job? Could the statutory right of reply envisaged in the Bill be abused by people wishing to make a case without taking part in open discussion? Is it appropriate to suggest, in the Bill's welcome provisions on compliance, that fines of up to €250,000 could be levied for breaches of "taste and decency"?
Those concepts are notoriously fickle, and Irish broadcasters operate alongside foreign-based stations which are not regulated here. There may be good answers to these questions and others that arise from the Bill. Given both the long delay in the legislative process, and the crucial role played by broadcasting, the Oireachtas should make sure it gets those answers.