Call for end of 'stopwatch' rule in ballot broadcasts

THE RULE that compels broadcasters to devote equal amounts of coverage to both sides in a referendum campaign should be discontinued, an Oireachtas committee has recommended.

The All-Party Committee on the Constitution yesterday published a report into its four-month inquiry into the current arrangement whereby broadcasters apply a “stopwatch” principle giving 50 per cent of coverage to each side.

The report recommends that the rule can be amended by changes in broadcasting legislation without recourse to a constitutional referendum.

It says that besides party or group political broadcasts, discretion in the matter should be left to the editorial judgment of broadcasters.

The current situation arises from two Supreme Court judgments in relation to Articles 46 and 47 of the Constitution. The successful challenges were brought first by former Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna and later by Anthony Coughlan of the National Platform.

The new report from the committee, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD Sean Ardagh, approves the principle underling the Supreme Court ruling in the McKenna judgment.

“There is no doubt but that the unregulated use of public funds to support one side of a referendum campaign is open to abuse and potentially unfair.”

However, the committee of 14 TDs and Senators argues in the report that the Coughlan decision is less satisfactory, particularly in the way it is applied.

Broadcasters tend to give a mathematical allotment of 50 per cent of time to each side.

The report criticises this practice. “In certain non-contentious referenda, it would mean that broadcasters would be obliged to apply the ‘stopwatch’ principle and facilitate ad-hoc opponents of the referendum by giving them the same airtime as the established political parties even if the level of opposition was tiny.” This gives rise to a situation that is “wholly artificial and unreal”.

However, Ms McKenna last night challenged the findings, saying any attempt to introduce a system favouring one side of the argument would be in breach of the Constitution and would have to be put to a referendum.

“The conclusions of the joint Oireachtas committee are geared toward the interest of the political establishment and ignore the democratic nature of this State enshrined in our Constitution.”

Ms McKenna added that the committee failed to recognise that the people alone and not the political parties were the guardians of the Constitution and only the people could agree to any changes.

The report argues that broadcasters could use “discretion to ensure fairness and balance between all sides in the referendum campaign without being artificially hidebound by ‘stopwatch’ rules”.