RTÉ to Respond to Criticism from Newspaper Industry

Some of RTÉ’s top executives will respond to complaints made by the Newspaper Industry at tomorrow’s (15th) meeting of the Oireachtas Communications.

The meeting will take place at 9:45 am in Committee Room 1 of Leinster House.

At a recent meeting, the Committee heard from representatives of the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) who argued that the State broadcaster had an unfair advantage through its abilities to promote its own products. The NNI also claimed that their online services were being undermined by RTÉ’s online activities and had impacted on their capacity to generate advertising income.

The NNI maintained that there needs to be protocols placed on the amount of on-line advertising and that the “one for everyone in the audience” attitude on the Late Late Show blurred the line between commercial sponsorship and its public service remit.

Committee Chairman, MJ Nolan TD said;
“At our meeting with the NNI we heard strong grievance against what they deem to be the inequitable advantage RTÉ has in terms of online promotion which they argued is having a serious impact on their ability to raise revenue.

The Committee felt that RTÉ should have a right to react to these claims so we are pleased that they have consented to come before the Committee to offer their perspective. These are difficult times for all businesses including the media, therefore so we must ensure that there is a level playing field so we expect RTE to offer a robust response.

ENDS
Daniel English
Oireachtas Communications Unit
01 618 4484
087 6949926
daniel.english@oireachtas.ie
Committee Membership
M.J. Nolan TD, Fianna Fáil, (Chairman)
Peter Kelly TD, Fianna Fáil, (Vice Chairman)
Noel Coonan TD, Fine Gael
Leo Varadkar TD, Fine Gael
Michael D'Arcy TD, Fine Gael
Jimmy Devins TD, Fianna Fáil
Mattie McGrath TD, Fianna Fáil
Joe McHugh TD, Fine Gael
Liz McManus TD, Labour Party
Michael Moynihan TD, Fianna Fáil
John Browne TD, Fianna Fáil
Senator Maria Corrigan, Fianna Fáil
Senator Joe O'Reilly, Fine Gael
Senator Jim Walsh, Fianna Fáil
Senator Joe O’Toole, Independent