The Minister for Media and Communications, Patrick O’Donovan, probably does not have the power to direct an inquiry into media coverage of the fuel protests, and most certainly should not want to issue such a direction, according to academic Roddy Flynn.
The Minister, who met representatives of the broadcasting and online media regulator Coimisiún na Meán on Tuesday, said during interviews on local radio that he was going to ask it to conduct a review, namechecking RTÉ while expressing negative views on how the media had covered the protests and their impact.
A spokeswoman for O’Donovan said on Tuesday: “The Minister isn’t seeking a review of media coverage, following his constructive engagement with Coimisiún na Meán today.”
A spokesman for the commission had no response when asked if the Minister had the power to direct such a review and, in a statement issued in the wake of the meeting, there was no mention of any such direction.
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“An coimisiún confirmed to the Minister that it would follow up on statutory complaints regarding coverage of the fuel protests, as set out in legislation,” it said.
“An coimisiún has to date received a number of contacts from members of the public relating to broadcast coverage of recent fuel protests,” it added.
It then outlined how, as stated in the legislation, people with complaints should first take them to the broadcaster or online media, and then go to the regulator if they remain dissatisfied.
The commission was established in 2023 with much of the law governing it contained in amendments to the 2009 Broadcasting Act. The provisions include one where the regulator can, if it is consistent with its other functions and available resources, provide advice on matters to which its functions relate “if requested to do so by a minister”.
It may also undertake strategic reviews in such areas as technological and societal change, the protection of children, and “other areas relevant to its functions, that the minister may direct”.
None of this would appear to include, or be designed to envisage, a minister, and in particular one with power over important financial and other decisions affecting broadcasters and online media operators, having his unhappiness over how the media covered a particular story or event investigated on direction.
According to Flynn, a lecturer in the School of Communications at Dublin City University, the regulator is a child of the EU’s European Media Freedom Act, a core objective of which is to enhance the independence of the media.
“The spirit of the Act is diametrically opposed to what [the Minister] is proposing,” Flynn said, speaking before O’Donovan’s meeting with the regulator.
If the question was could the Minister direct the regulator to conduct a review, then the answer is he probably can’t, Flynn said.
“If the question is should he, then the answer is he should not.”
