Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have raised the issue of media partisanship in a couple of contributions I have made in the Seanad recently. I await a response from the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to the specific issues I have raised with him. While we wait for policy makers to take the lead in ensuring more fairness and balance, particularly in publicly funded media, the problem continues. Nowhere is this more visible than in the complete lack of fairness and balance in RTE's coverage of the abortion issue which, given the Government's initiation of a citizens' assembly to address the issue, among others, requires urgent attention in these Houses. I will outline the most recent example. In the past month, from 9 June to 8 July, RTE Radio 1 devoted an incredible 81 minutes to people who were pushing for repeal of the eighth amendment to the Constitution, while in the same period the pro-life side was given a paltry four minutes to make its case. Members heard me correctly. If public service broadcasting is to mean anything, regardless of our views on this issue, we must acknowledge that there has been an utter abuse of power and influence which shows contempt for the licence paying public. It is no wonder that the public never hears hard questions being put on RTE to abortion advocates. When a woman from Ireland died in the back of a London taxi after an abortion at a Marie Stopes clinic, there was no outcry on RTE, no headline coverage for days and no "Prime Time" debates. When women hurt by their experience of abortion wish to tell their stories, RTE looks the other way. When parents feel pressured by medical personnel to abort their child with a life limiting condition, as has happened, RTE has shown no interest or curiosity in pursuing their stories. It only gives headline coverage to stories that push abortion. That is what the record shows. It consistently shields Government commentary in support of abortion from any one-on-one debate with those who seek to protect unborn children. I am concluding and I am grateful for the opportunity afforded me by the Cathaoirleach. RTE no longer deserves the public's trust on these issues. There was only 81 minutes allocated for the so-called pro-choice side and four minutes for those who want to protect both mothers and unborn children. Such allocation is insulting and inexcusable. We should applaud members of the public who have drawn attention to the blatant nature of the bias for some time in a calm, reasoned and persistent way. Fairness in the media goes to the heart of our democracy and how it functions. The House ought to debate this issue as a matter of urgency. It is time we posed hard questions to RTE. It is time that RTE stopped treating members of the licence fee-paying public like fools. RTE has some fine honourable reporters working for it and my remarks are not directed at them. When it comes to the abortion issue, journalism is dead in RTE and propagandism has taken its place. To claim otherwise is to insult people's intelligence. I ask the Deputy Leader to please arrange a debate on RTE's bias on this issue, at the earliest possible opportunity, because the present problem, controversy and scandal has to be addressed quickly.