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On 15 October 2002, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources published a list of major sports events that the Government has approved as events that are of major importance to Irish society and which should continue to be available on free-to-air television services. The Minister has the power to do this under section 2(1) of the Broadcasting (Major Events Television Coverage) Act, 1999, which implements the relevant provisions of the "Television without Frontiers" Directive, but this is the first time that the Minister has used this power. The impetus for the drawing up of...

The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands recently announced the establishment of a Forum on Broadcasting. The seven members of the Forum come from broadcasting, business, academic and arts fields. The Minister has directed the Forum to examine a number of topics and to make recommendations on them. The topics concern the roles of public and commercial/independent broadcasting services, and whether these roles differ at national, regional and local levels; the funding of public service broadcasting ("but excluding issues specifically related to the adequacy or otherwise of the...

Prior to the General Election held on 17 May 2002, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) published guidelines indicating the general approach to be adopted by independent broadcasters in their coverage of the election. The guidelines were in addition to the statutory provisions already in existence. The Radio and Television Act, 1988, requires all news to be reported in an objective and impartial manner without any expression of the broadcaster's own views. In addition, it requires the broadcast treatment of current affairs to be fair to all sides (section 9(1)). Party political broadcasts...

At the end of April the Irish legislature enacted the Communications Regulation Act, 2002. The Act provides for the establishment of a new body, the Commission for Communications Regulation ("the Commission"). The Commission will be established on a date to be decided by the Minister for Public Enterprise. The Commission will take over the functions of the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation, which is the body currently responsible for implementing the laws on liberalising the telecommunications market, and is also responsible for regulating broadcasting distribution and the...

The Irish Government recently published its long-awaited Bille na dTeangacha Oifigiúla (Comhionannas) (Official Languages (Equality) Bill), 2002. The primary objectives of the Bill include the promotion of respect for Irish and English as the official languages of the State; the promotion of equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use, especially in parliamentary proceedings, legislation, the administration of justice, in communicating with or providing services to the public and in discharging the functions of public bodies. For the purposes of the Bill, the main national...