Madam, - I refer to Mary Raftery's excellent column of march 8th, " Trócaire ad deserves airing". The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland's decision on the ad was raised in the Dáil on Wednesday by the leader of the Labour Party at leaders' questions in the morning, and by myself on the adjournment of the Dáil. The Government position was presented by Minister of State Tom Parlon, speaking for the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.
The construction that the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has put on Trócaire's campaign advertisement under section 10 (3) of the Radio and Television Act 1988 is as extraordinary as it is unacceptable.
The section states: "No advertisement shall be broadcast which is directed towards any religious or political end or which has any relation to an industrial dispute." This was intended to eliminate any potential abuse of broadcasting for a religious or political purpose within the Irish State. The construction that is being put on "political" by the BCI means that any campaign, be it against bonded labour, child soldiers, trafficking, or slavery, even if it is the subject of a United Nations resolution, could be precluded from broadcast.
A further and more dangerous consequence flows from the fact that the basis of the commission's decision may have been that the ad's call for a Government action plan to implement resolution 1325 of the UN Security Council on gender inequality could have been regarded as "political".
Either of these constructions, and the conclusions that flow from them, would be appalling. One would exclude campaigns with a moral basis. The other would constitute a censorship.
On Wednesday night in the Dáil, Mr Parlon simply reiterated that the BCI was an independent body and repeated the line that the reason for the decision was that a campaign, even for a United Nations project, was prohibited and that further difficulties were created if a campaign called for government action, even for such an issue as gender equality.
I proposed a mechanism for clarifying Section 10 (3) and defining what was political. If this is not accepted by the Government, I will, in the remaining period of this Dáil, introduce a short Private Member's Bill to deal with this issue.
I do agree with Mary Raftery that this is an issue which requires a public airing, but I am surprised at the quiet acquiescence with which the BCI decision has been received. The public, for example, is entitled to know whether the board of the BCI has discussed this issue and, if so, whether its discussion will put into the public realm. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL D. HIGGINS TD, Labour Party President and Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.