Madam, - Since the RTÉ/BCI decision to ban the latest ad for the Irish Catholic, it has been encouraging to receive support from politicians and from the National Union of Journalists, as well as from Amnesty International.
What I, as editor of the Irish Catholic, have personally found most galling about the RTÉ/BCI decision is the inconsistent way they apply the legislation which governs ads directed towards a religious or a political end. Basically, both bodies interpret the meaning of "religious ends" as strictly as possible but are far more reasonable in their interpretation of "political ends".
This means, at least according to RTÉ and the BCI, that the Irish Catholic cannot include in its ads anything that can remotely be construed as pursuing a religious end or of addressing the merits or otherwise of being a Catholic.
On the other hand, it is commonplace to hear ads for secular papers which directly address political themes. For example, a recent for the Sunday Tribune last weekend spoke of the "sport" of "McCreevy-bashing".
The Irish Catholic merely asks that RTÉ and the BCI be as reasonable towards religious publications as they are towards publications with political content. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID QUINN,
Editor,
The Irish Catholic,
Lower Gardiner Street,
Dublin 1.