A COMPLAINT against RTE concerning a repeat of a broadcast by the Right to Remarry Group during the divorce referendum campaign has been upheld by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission.
RTE said the repeat was an error and to repeat a broadcast from an opposing viewpoint would have compounded that error.
However, a second complaint, that in the context of a referendum RTE should not broadcast "uncontested broadcasts on behalf of political parties", was not upheld.
The complaints were brought by a Trinity College, Dublin lecturer, Mr Anthony Coughlan, who said that party political broadcasts' during a referendum do not reflect the "divided view of party members and supporters and usually constitute a partisan presentation of the referendum issue in question".
Mr Coughlan said that in a constitutional referendum, "where most or all of the political parties and their leaderships are lined up on one side, this unnecessary and gratuitous practice by RTE has, or can have, the effect of using the State radio and television to make a one sided, unbalanced presentation of the referendum issue, which in turn impinges directly and adversely on the rights of citizens to equality and fairness in the referendum process.
The Broadcasting Complaints Commission said RTE was allowed to broadcast party political broadcasts in the context of referendums.
It found RTE did breach its statutory obligations by failing to counter balance an accidental second transmission of a Right to Remarry Group broadcast, by giving a repeat facility to the opposing side or in some way redressing the imbalance.
RTE was also found to be in breach of its obligations in reporting the shooting down of two US aircraft by the Cuban airforce.
In a complaint brought by Mr Declan McKenna on behalf of the Cuban Support Group Ireland, the commission said the RTE 1 radio programme, Morning Ireland, had not been fair to all interests concerned.
Mr McKenna there had been an interview with Mr Bob Dole, then a US presidential candidate, a number of Cuban Americans and with President Clinton. There was no comment from any Cuban source.
