Angelus is not regarded as advertising by RTE

The Angelus was not regarded as advertising but is seen as "religious programming" a spokesman at RTÉ said yesterday. He was responding to queries about the legality of broadcasting the Angelus while "Power to Change" advertisements were banned by the station. The Angelus had been carried by RTÉ for 50 years and he felt "the majority of people in Ireland welcome it".

There was no opposition to it from the non-Roman Catholic Christian churches, and RTÉ was "not planning to change the position". He did acknowledge that those who saw the item as sectarian were "expressing those views with greater confidence" of late. And he did point out that "under the Act" governing RTÉ, the broadcaster was obliged to reflect the culture of Ireland.