Radio item on sexual health gets all clear

Is Radio 1's Mooney "a family show" that should avoid mention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)? The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's executive complaints forum has come down on the side of "no".

After a complaint from a listener about a Mooney item where a reporter accompanied a man to an STD clinic during National Sexual Health Awareness Week, RTÉ responded that Mooney has a history of covering everything from light entertainment to "all kinds of sensitive, controversial and even taboo topics", including exorcisms and euthanasia.

And for parents of small children who didn’t want to get the “Mam / Dad, what’s an STD?” question on that particular afternoon, two warnings were broadcast in advance of the item.

Some 63 per cent of the audience for Mooney, which goes out on weekdays from 3pm to 4.30pm, is over the age of 55, while 31 per cent is in the 35-54-year-old bracket and just 6 per cent is aged 15-34, RTÉ said.

Mention of particular body parts and symptoms took place entirely in the matter-of-fact context of a conversation between doctor and patient, it added, and anyway it was “extremely doubtful” that any children listening would have understood the medical terminology used.

Members of the executive complaints forum agreed that there was no breach of the “due care” and “protection for children” sections of the regulator’s Code of Programme Standards – which is currently being revised – and decided the complaint did not merit further examination.

“Although there may have been children among the audience, many would be passive listeners and therefore much of the discussion would have gone over their heads.”