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In April 2001, the European Convention on Human Rights Bill was published by the Irish Government. The purpose of this piece of draft legislation is to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into the national legal order, thereby making rights under the Convention enforceable in the Irish courts. One result of this is that the media, in particular, will benefit from the strengthening of existing constitutional protection for freedom of expression by virtue of the incorporation of Article 10 of the European Convention. The introduction of the Bill was deemed necessary as Ireland has...

The Director of Telecommunications Regulation has issued a Decision Notice requiring Cable/MMDS (Microwave Multipoint Distribution System) licensees to implement a code of practice for handling complaints. She has also set out minimum standards for such codes. The Decision, which was issued on 6 April 2001, follows a very large increase in the number of complaints received by the Director concerning, inter alia, customer service, quality and billing. The new codes should help consumers to understand what level of service to expect and enable them to insist upon their rights. Following consultation...

In May 2001, the Director of Telecommunications Regulation issued new regulations that provide for the extension of deflector licences beyond their original expiry date of 31 December 2001. The licences had been issued in April 2000, as a short-term measure (see IRIS 1997-7: 9 and IRIS 2000-5: 15), while preparations were being made for the introduction of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT). At present, there are 31 deflector licences in force. In many rural parts of Ireland deflector services provide the only means of access to multichannel television services broadcast from the U.K. and prior...

A man who made a hoax telephone call to a national radio show on 31 August 2000 was pursued under post office legislation, rather than broadcasting legislation. Irish broadcasting legislation contains numerous provisions concerned with programme content but is aimed at the obligations and responsibilities of broadcasters rather than individual callers. The man telephoned an RTE (the national public service broadcaster) radio chat show, claiming to be the well-known captain of the Galway county hurling team and to be representing his own views and those of the team members. Hurling is a popular...

The Information Society Commission was established by the Irish Government in 1997 to monitor Ireland's progress as an Information Society, to promote awareness of new technology and to advise the government on Ireland's development in this area. Its third and most recent report, compiled in December 2000, assessed Ireland's current position and made recommendations for future development. The Commission highlighted what had been achieved during the three-year period, including: the liberalisation of the telecommunications market, the enactment of the Electronic Commerce Act, 2000 (IRIS 2000-8:...