Professor Kevin Rafter:

Thank you, Chairman. In response to the question on the availability of public moneys for print media, and privately owned print media, there is an important distinction between broadcast and print and the statutory obligations on RTE, TG4 and the private broadcasters in terms of fairness, balance and impartiality. Newspapers, as private entities, can adopt an editorial line as they so wish. In terms of that distinction the defining line for me is why public money, through the licence fee, would not be available to the broad newspaper and print sector. The argument I would make and that I put forward in the submission to the committee on expanding the availability of public money into news and current affairs coverage of private broadcasters is because of the importance of having a viable sustainable alternative to RTE. The legislative underpinning of their output and the requirements through the Broadcasting Act 2009 and the regulatory guidelines that the BAI publish puts the broadcasters in a different place.

On the challenges in the sector, I will go back to my opening comment that all broadcasters in Ireland, irrespective of their ownership type, face funding challenges. The closure of a significant player such as Newstalk would have a huge impact on democratic discourse in this country. Likewise, we heard reference to Clare FM, or indeed any of the stations in the local areas of members. They know the value of the local stations and what would be the effect of their closure. In this debate we must be conscious that when we talk about public service broadcasting, public service media and public service content, it is no longer about RTE and TG4. There are other players in this market and they have a value in terms of their public remit.

The audience needs to have local choice as well as global media such as Sky and Google and tweeting and Facebooking, as I referred to in my submission, but it also important that there is a sustainable and viable financial model in place. If the conversation about public service broadcasting focuses exclusively on RTE and TG4 we are neglecting a huge amount of content and there is a responsibility on those who are looking at the 2009 Act, which is really not fit-for-purpose any more and does need to be revised. There needs to be a broader definition of public service broadcasting. The BAI in its annual and five-year reviews of public service broadcasting must cast its own net wider than RTE and TG4 in looking at content and to put it up to private broadcasters in the independent commercial sector. There need to be very defined criteria and obligations on them if they are to receive increased licence fee money for news and current affairs output.