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On 11 July 2017, the European Commission published its decision concerning the financing of public broadcasting in Ireland, following a complaint from a private broadcaster regarding alleged breaches of State aid rules under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Notably, the decision also concerns the competitive behaviour of public broadcasters in the advertising market. The current system of State financing of public broadcasters RTÉ and TG4 in Ireland was approved by the European Commission in a 2008 Decision (see IRIS 2008-4/8), under which the Irish authorities agreed to implement...

On 3 August 2017, the Compliance Committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) issued a notable number of decisions (11 in total) on offensive expression and religion arising from comments made on a programme broadcast by the public broadcaster RTÉ. The BAI had received a number of complaints over the programme, including those from priests and a Christian association, generating coverage in the media. The decisions are noteworthy because they show how the BAI assesses the distinction between offence and harm; they outline which duties are applicable to broadcasters and presenters to...

On 1 September 2017, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) Short News Reporting Code of Practice came into effect. Under the legislation (S.I. 258/2010 and S.I. 247/2012) which incorporates the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (2010/13/EU) into Irish law, the BAI is required to develop a code of practice concerning short news reports provision. The Code reflects Article 15 of the AVMS Directive, and provides that a television broadcaster under the jurisdiction of the State that has acquired exclusive television broadcasting rights for an event that is of high interest to the public shall...

On 22 May 2017, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) announced the allocation of EUR 5.5 million to projects under its broadcasting funding scheme, “The Sound & Vision 3 Broadcasting Funding Scheme” (see IRIS 2016-9/22 and IRIS 2015-4/13). The scheme is created under section 154 of the Broadcasting Act 2009, which requires the BAI to “prepare” a funding scheme to support a number of objectives, including new television or radio programmes “including feature films, animation and drama on Irish culture, heritage and experience”, “programmes to improve adult or media literacy”, “programmes...

On 12 May 2017, the Department of Justice and Equality published the General Scheme of the Data Protection Bill 2017. The Bill will give further effect in Irish law to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (2016/679). The Bill contains some notable features for the media: Article 85 of the GDPR obliges member states to reconcile the right to protection of personal data with the right to freedom of expression and information. Current law in Ireland in this regard is set out in section 22(A) of the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003, which gives effect to Article 9 of the 1995 Data Protection...