The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) has published the most recent broadcasting complaints decisions on Tuesday 31st January 2017. Rejected complaints relating to TV broadcasts include complaints regarding RTÉ One’s ‘The Rose of Tralee’ programme.
At its meeting held in December 2016, the Compliance Committee of the BAI considered eight complaints. The Committee has upheld one complaint in part and rejected seven complaints.
The complaints considered by the Compliance Committee concerned programmes aired on Dublin’s 98FM, Newstalk 106-108FM and RTÉ One TV.
The complaint upheld in part related to the following broadcast:
- Dublin’s 98FM: Dublin Talks: 25th August 2016
The seven complaints rejected related to the following broadcasts:
- Newstalk 106-108FM: The Right Hook: 12th and 13th July 2016
- RTÉ One Television: The Rose of Tralee: 22nd and 23rd August 2016
Details of all these decisions are available to download here.
The Executive Complaints Forum considered and rejected 6 complaints.
Those rejected by the Compliance Committee included five complaints on ‘The Rose of Tralee’ programme broadcast on RTÉ One between the 22nd & 23rd August 2016.
Overall the complaints for the RTÉ One programme submit by five different persons regarded two issues; firstly, the interview with North Carolina Rose and her observations on the Irish Catholic Mass and secondly, the interview with the Sydney Rose and her comments on Ireland’s laws on abortion.
Details within the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, Broadcasting Complaint Decisions include the below response from the broadcaster RTÉ in relation to particular complaints about ‘The Rose of Tralee’ programme and interview with the Sydney Rose.
“The broadcaster states that The Rose of Tralee is a light entertainment programme at the editorial core of which are interviews with contestants designed to elicit their experience, personalities and view of the world. The personal view on the 8th Amendment to the Constitution expressed by the Sydney Rose, in a live, unplanned, unscripted and unforeseen supplement to her answer on a question about her work with survivors of domestic violence, certainly related to a topic of public debate. However, not least in the context of the definition of current affairs content in the BAI Code’s Guidance Notes and of the right to freedom of expression, the brief articulation of a personal opinion does not, in the view of RTÉ, generate current affairs content from what is essentially human interest entertainment.”
Having reviewed the programme, the Compliance Committee found that the item entailed the standard interview with a participant in the Rose of Tralee, in this case, the Sydney Rose. The approach to the interview reflected the style of the programme, that is, the interviews are done in the style of light entertainment, with a humorous approach intended to show audiences the character and interests of the participant. In this case, the interview touched on her connection to Ireland, how her parents met, her work in the area of journalism and her support for women experiencing domestic violence.
More information and details of all the BAI decisions are available to download here.
