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Complaints Upheld
Cóir Date: 02.02.2010 The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) has upheld three separate complaints in relation to The Wide Angle programme on Newstalk radio on September 13th 2009 in relation to the second Lisbon Treaty referendum.
The BAI Committee said that the “Yes side was given prominence in the discussion”, that “the broadcast treatment of the treaty in this broadcast was one-sided and not fair to all interests concerned” and that the programme makers and the presenter, Karen Coleman, “did not take sufficient action to mitigate the views and opinions expressed by the panel, which was overwhelmingly for a Yes vote”.
The authority said it was incumbent on the broadcaster to ensure that “in dealing with the Lisbon Treaty, a matter of public debate, that both side of the issue were addressed fairly”. It pointed out that “It was evident on hearing the broadcast, that the approach to the discussion and the contributors to the programme had been planned and pre-arranged for this particular broadcast of The Wide Angle.”
The Committee was of the view that the content of the discussion amounted to a one-sided viewpoint on the Lisbon Treaty Referendum.
Complaints were received from Brendan O’Regan, from James Maher and from Dr Anthony Coughlan regarding the programme and all three were upheld. Mr Maher pointed out that the programme was very biased in favour of Lisbon, with the sole “token gesture to the No camp being an unscheduled, unexpected ‘phone call to a Cóir spokesman who was abroad at the time, and who was only allowed a couple of minutes to speak.
Dr Coughlan stated that in his many years of listening to current affairs coverage on Irish radio, he could not recall such a loaded, partisan and unbalanced programme. He informed the BAI that the Cóir spokesman, Brian Hickey, was not allowed any time to respond to criticisms made of the organisation and its message during the programme, and that the presenter, Karen Coleman, showed her own partiality on the Lisbon vote.
Mr. O’Regan submitted that there was a blatant pro-Lisbon bias in this programme, with an “an unbelievable eight to one in favour of the Lisbon Treaty”.
All three complainants held that Newstalk had breached the fairness, objectivity and impartiality provisions of the Broadcasting Act. The BAI upheld all three complaints. Cóir spokesman Richard Greene said that the Newstalk programme was indicative of the “extraordinary bias in the media for a Yes vote on Lisbon” and that Irish newspapers in the week before the vote had disgraced themselves by their slavish support for the treaty. Read the Complaints here Complaint of A Coughlan Complaint of J Maher Complaint of B O'Regan Statement of BAI on Newstalk about Newstalk's biased Wide Angle broadcast - Newstalk 106-108FM Audio version of a statement by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland on a complaint by Anthony Coughlan and others which the BAI upheld against Newstalk 106's Wide Angle programme, relating to an unfair and unbalanced broadcast on the Lisbon Treaty on 13 September last.
The statement was broadcast on the Wide Angle programme - producer Karin Coleman - at 11 a.m. on Sunday 7 February 2010
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