BAI upholds two of 11 complaints
The authority’s compliance committee found that comments about a general election candidate on Kilkenny and Carlow-based radio station KCLR FM did not meet the requirements set for fairness, objectivity and impartiality in news and current affairs.
While the BAI noted there was a conflict in accounts between KCLR and candidate Noel G Walsh as to why he did not appear on the station’s election coverage, the host of KCLR Live made “personal and pointed” remarks about Mr Walsh. The BAI said it considered further comments about Mr Walsh’s previous performance in elections amounted “to a suggestion about his electability”.
A complaint about the portrayal of Éamon de Valera in RTÉ’s 1916 drama Rebellion was dismissed. The complainant said a scene which showed Mr de Valera “vomiting when he heard of the commuting of the death sentence, deliberately denigrated his memory in its representation of his reaction”.
The complainant also said the scene in question was historically inaccurate. The BAI dismissed the complaint on the grounds that the programme was a fictionalised dramatic account of the Rising and the producers were entitled to “take a creative approach to telling a story with a view to entertaining and engaging audiences”.
A scene in Rebellion, in which Thomas Clarke was stripped naked, inspired a joke on RTÉ Radio 1’s Callan’s Kicks which found itself the subject of a complaint to the BAI. A sketch in which Fianna Fáil members discussed the show’s perceived historical inaccuracies included one contributor asking “was Thomas Clarke’s langer not that big in real life?” The complainant described the joke as “crude” and “juvenile” and stated that Mr Clarke “gave his life for Ireland and should not have been the subject of such disparaging remarks”.
The BAI rejected the complaint, and said the Fianna Fáil party was clearly the focus of the sketch’s humour, not Mr Clarke, and that it was evident the comments were “not meant to be taken seriously or literally”.
