Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation from RTE to the committee. I have a number of questions for Mr. Bakhurst and his colleagues. I refer to the upcoming marriage referendum. Let me point to the Broadcasting Authority guidelines on coverage, not just for RTE but also for other media outlets. This is important because all the political parties in the Oireachtas are in favour of one side of the referendum and it is my understanding that all too often the McKenna judgement is misinterpreted and misunderstood by some media organs, thereby creating a space for those who are against it. It is opportune that the delegates are before the committee. The McKenna judgment is not about giving 15 minutes to each side, it is about presenting the case in a balanced fashion. Can I ask the delegates what is RTE's intent in terms of coverage, particularly in the run-up to the poll on Friday, 22 May? Can the witnesses tell the committee RTE's plan in regard to affording proper balance and judgement so we do not have a situation where a political party or civic society group proponent on the "Yes" side with a fundamentalist on the "No" side, who is not part of a broader movement but by virtue of a misinterpretation of the McKenna judgement, might find themselves on very fine shows such as "Claire Byrne Live" or "Today with Sean O'Rourke".

How often does RTE get complaints from political parties? Is it generally from the administrator or the Director General, or does it get direct complaints from leaders of political parties? We are very good at thinking we are all victims of a huge media conspiracy to not cover all the important things we are saying. I know the level of significance that we attach to some issues may not be shared, rightly so in some cases, by our national media outlets. Are those complaints logged and how are they dealt with? Are there complaints directly from members of the Oireachtas, Senators or Deputies as distinct from party leaders' offices? As Mr. Bakhurst knows, a complaint has been lodged by our former Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Dermot Lacey, in regard to coverage on "The Marian Finucane Show" last Saturday, and again on Sunday. There were four anti-water charge protestors interviewed on the show on Saturday. The leader of the anti-water charge protest was interviewed on the show on Sunday. There was no counter balance. There was a five-to-none imbalance in terms of that coverage. Can the delegates explain the rationale behind that and how the complaint by the former Lord Mayor is going to be dealt with? At what stage is the coverage of a protest in danger of becoming promotion of the event as opposed to coverage of it?

I am mystified by the numbers, and not just by media outlets but also An Garda Síochána and organisers of groups. Every year the mini-marathon in Cork is limited to a crowd of 10,000 people. They line up behind Páirc Uí Chaoimh and anybody down there in journalistic circles knows what a crowd of 10,000 people looks like. I was not around for the protest on Saturday, I was only feeding into Twitter and trying to get an accurate gauge of the crowd control. Estimates varied widely, from 20,000 to a high of 80,000. I heard one media outlet, I do not believe it was RTE, say it was hundreds of thousands. All these figures cannot be correct. Is there software available where one could guesstimate the size of crowds? Is there a benchmark, like the Dublin City Marathon, where one would have a defined, accurate number of participants enlisted, for example 100,000? Could this be benchmarked to the visual turnout for a protest? Some of the commentary around the inaccurate predictions of the turnout on Saturday was that there were large areas of O'Connell Street that were not occupied by people. Even if they were there, they could have been shoppers going about their business or people employed on public transport waiting to take over roles. I find the figures intriguing, they cannot all be right and they are so wildly inaccurate. I have been guilty myself in the past of overstating a crowd for obvious reasons-----