Repeated complaints stymying debate on abortion

Watching The Story of Yes, a documentary about the marriage referendum on RTÉ2 on Monday night, one noticed how the architecture of anti-marriage equality arguments built during that referendum debate - arguments that hurt and upset and offended gay people - are now historical artefacts of broadcasting.

Watching snippets of those arguments highlighted in hindsight how mean-spirited and often ridiculous they were. All through that debate, broadcasters’ switchboards lit up every time a gay person spoke about their experience.

Complaints were made. Even before it, self-censorship was in full effect. I have plenty of personal experience of this, with nervous broadcasters not allowing me on the radio to discuss a history book about LGBT rights I had written even before the date of the referendum had been announced, and months before it actually took place.

Now, imagine this. You’re a couple who has dealt with the tragedy of a fatal foetal abnormality. You want to share your experience - a massively brave and personal thing to do - so that others can know how cruel and archaic Ireland’s laws on reproductive rights are.

You go on Irish radio to talk about it, and people complain. People complain about you talking about a deeply personal and tragic thing. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland hears those complaints and upholds them in some part.

June Twomey and Brendan O’Regan complained to the BAI when Graham and Helen Linehan’s story was aired on D’Arcy’s show on October 15th. Twomey said the item was “unfair and biased”.

O’Regan said the programme was “an attack on the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution.” The BAI upheld in part the complaints, by saying that other perspectives were “insufficient” and those opposing viewpoints were treated in a “cursory” manner.

Brendan O’Regan previously complained to the BAI about marriage referendum discussions on D’Arcy’s programme on May 7th and May 25th in 2015. O’Regan’s complaint on May 7th was about a discussion surrounding the stock photo of models used by the ‘No’ campaign on one of its referendum posters.

After the programme on the 25th of May, O’Regan complained that the show was celebrating the passing of the marriage referendum, and therefore “excluding approximately 40per cent of the electorate.” Considering the referendum was already over on May 25th, RTÉ said that BAI Guidelines did not apply. The BAI rejected both complaints.

June Twomey previously complained to the BAI about a discussion on the Ray D’Arcy Show on August 4th 2015 on the back of an article by the then Fine Gael Councillor and now TD Kate O’Connell about “her experience of a pregnancy involving a foetus with a medical problem”.

Twomey asserted that the programme gave airtime to “the promotion of abortion in the case of pregnancies involving foetuses with genetic defects and pregnancies arising from rape and framed the issue only in terms of choice.” Twomey also complained that text messages read out were “pro-abortion”. The BAI rejected this complaint.

Twomey complained again about the Ray D'Arcy Show about an item discussed on June 9th 2015 about abortion. This complaint was about a discussion with Colm O'Gorman, the Executive Director of Amnesty International regarding its report, 'She Is Not A Criminal, The Impact of Ireland's Abortion Law'. This complaint was upheld.

Brendan O’Regan appears again in the BAI complaints about a piece on Newstalk’s World In Motion programme on 30th November 2014 about abortion. His complaint stated that he believed the presenter asked leading questions such as “Do you not agree that abortion should be available when a woman’s health is in danger?”

The BAI rejected the complaints. The BAI also rejected a complaint from O’Regan about a marriage referendum item on April 12th 2015 on The Week In Politics, and also rejected another complaint he made about another marriage referendum item on Newstalk’s Breakfast Show on May 20th 2015.

These complaints are all public record, available on the BAI’s website. Ray D’Arcy is an experienced and very capable broadcaster, and his programme can be light enough, but is also a space where serious human interest issues are discussed and stories told. It’s also very popular.

The Ray D’Arcy Show has repeatedly been the subject of complaints by those who oppose the reproductive rights of women.

It must be incredibly challenging for its presenter and producer.

If you are a presenter or producer dealing with an item on abortion, you know that you are going to have to deal with people making complaints against your programme.

It creates an air of fear and reticence amongst programme makers, which can end up in self-censorship. It becomes impossible to discuss abortion on air without pairing it with Catholic dogma rarely based on experience or fact. How utterly ridiculous.

The impact of such rulings from the BAI is not just that open and honest debate is stymied, but that even talking about reproductive rights in any format becomes incredibly complicated. And why is it that “balance” seems to only apply most vigorously to matters dogmatic Catholics feel are contentious; gay rights, abortion, and so on?

The BAI needs to immediately clarify its regulations again on discussing the topic of abortion on Irish airwaves. No referendum related to any aspect of abortion has been called, yet once again, the BAI is making rulings that are similar to those made during a referendum campaign.

In many ways, like D’Arcy’s show, you have to feel sorry for the BAI, who constantly have to respond to complaints. But we cannot go on having the personal experiences of people challenged by obfuscation, and it’s up to the BAI and broadcasters to sort this out in a broadcasting culture that frequently seems less about balance and more about censorship.