Protest over plan to close radio service

ABOUT 50 people took part in a protest outside the offices of Independent Network News (INN) in Dublin yesterday over the scheduled closure of the radio report service at the end of the month.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the INN board had failed to consult with staff, had not considered options short of wholesale redundancies, and was acting with indecent haste in setting October 30th as the closure date.

The union said the board had under-represented how many people INN employed and that the number of job losses could be twice the 16 redundancies announced by the company.

“We want the redundancy notice withdrawn as we believe that the board has acted prematurely,” NUJ Irish secretary Séamus Dooley said. “There is a statutory obligation for a 30-day consultation period and we believe they have breached that.”

INN chapel officer Adam Ledwith said there had been no formal communication from the company since its wind-down was announced on October 1st.

“Letters are being ignored and phone calls are going unreturned and it’s disappointing really.”

The INN board said it had to close the business as it was no longer financially viable. Mr Ledwith argued this was not the case: “I owe more on my house than there is a deficit in INN. The financial situation is not at all insurmountable . . . If they had tried to save INN and failed then it would be fair enough.”

A committee representing radio stations which take INN reports, along with the company’s shareholders, excluding UTV and Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp, will this week decide the winner of a three-month contract to replace INN.

UTV and Mr O’Brien’s Newstalk are understood to have bid and been shortlisted for the contract.

The NUJ has asked for an investigation by the Director of Corporate Enforcement into the actions of the INN board. “I don’t understand the concept that you can be party to decision as a board member that actually benefits you commercially,” Mr Dooley said.

Labour Party communications spokeswoman Liz McManus said the closure raised serious questions about media ownership and regulation in Ireland and that dominance of the company board by UTV and Communicorp was legal but entirely inappropriate.

Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan said he was concerned about the closure and that it would be a huge loss to Irish broadcasting. He said he hoped a similar independent news service would soon be established.