Press group criticises RTÉ's use of website

RTÉ’S WEBSITE amounts to an abuse of its role as a public service broadcaster and it should be “reined in”, the newspaper industry has claimed.

The National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI), which includes The Irish Times, told an Oireachtas committee yesterday that RTÉ.ie was a commercial website at odds with its public service remit as outlined in the Broadcasting Act 2009.

NNI co-ordinating director Frank Cullen said: “To us that says it is a public service website. If it is a public service website, deliver the content by all means, but there should be no advertising. We have a grey area that urgently needs to be addressed.”

He urged politicians to look at models like Norway or the UK where the state broadcasters are not allowed to advertise on their website in their own country, though BBC Worldwide is allowed to take advertising elsewhere.

He also pointed out that there are statutory limits to RTÉ’s television and radio advertising but none for its website.

RTÉ.ie was full of advertisements about “dating, motoring and property”, which had no place where the broadcaster was showcasing material like news which was funded by the licence fee, he said.

He also told members of the Oireachtas committee on communications that the "one for everyone in the audience" attitude on the Late Late Showblurred the line between pure commercial sponsorship and its public service remit and would never be tolerated in a newspaper, where it would be flagged up as an "advertising feature".

Mr Cullen said advertising in newspapers was back to levels last seen in 1998 and the future in the industry was under threat from companies like Google which were benefiting from streaming newspaper content free online.

In response to a suggestion by Independent Senator Joe O’Toole that newspapers had “missed the boat” in terms of online content, Irish Times managing director Liam Kavanagh pointed out that the newspaper has been investing in its website since 1994.

Mr Kavanagh said he was sceptical about RTÉ’s assertion that its website was totally funded from commercial activities.

The Irish Timeshad been investing in its website for many years and had not been able to make a profit from it, he said. He believed RTÉ had an unfair advantage because it used its programmes to plug its website.

The meeting was attended by RTÉ’s head of corporate communications, Kevin Dawson, who said afterwards that it was prepared to give a “very different perspective” on digital media if invited to do so by the committee.