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In October 2018, the Compliance Committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), by majority, upheld a complaint in part regarding a report of court proceedings broadcast by public service broadcaster RTÉ One on their Six-One News, a news programme broadcast each evening at 6.01 p.m. Under section 48 of the Broadcasting Act 2009, individuals may make a complaint to the Authority that a broadcaster failed to comply with the broadcasting codes. The complainant referred to a report of court proceedings at a district court in which the complainant appeared as the defendant. The complainant...

On 26 October 2018, a referendum was held in Ireland on whether the offence of blasphemy should be removed from the Bunreacht na hÉireann (Irish Constitution); 65% voted in favour and 35% voted against. As a result, Article 40.6.1 of the Irish Constitution no longer provides that the publication or utterance of blasphemous matter is an offence which shall be punishable by law. Following the referendum, the Irish Minister for Justice and Equality commented that the Irish people had sent a “message to the world - a strong message that laws against blasphemy do not reflect Irish values and that we...

On 20 September 2018, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) published updated Guidelines for Coverage of General, Presidential, Seanad (Senate), Local and European Elections (for previous guidelines, see IRIS 2016-1/19 and IRIS 2014-5/23). The purpose of the Guidelines is to set out requirements for broadcasters in terms of their coverage of elections, and to provide guidance on how fairness, objectivity and impartiality may be achieved. The Guidelines were published in advance of the Irish presidential election in late October 2018, and upcoming local and European Parliament elections in...

On 21 June 2018, the important High Court judgment in Kehoe v. RTÉ was published, which held that a jury in a defamation trial may apportion liability between a broadcaster and a programme contributor, even where the contributor is not a party to the case.   The case concerned Nicky Kehoe, a member of the Irish political party Sinn Féin, and a former elected local official. The case centred on an October 2015 edition of the current affairs programme ‘Saturday with Claire Byrne’ broadcast live by the public broadcaster RTÉ. The edition at issue featured the presenter and two contributors, namely...

On 27 June 2018, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) issued a notable decision on a public broadcaster’s compliance with impartiality rules in its coverage of the possible imminent resignation of a government minister. By a majority, the BAI Executive Complaints Forum found that the RTÉ current affairs programme, where the minister in fact resigned the following day, had not infringed requirements of the Broadcasting Act 2009 nor the BAI Code of Fairness, Objectivity and Impartiality in News and Current Affairs. The decision concerned Claire Byrne Live, a well-known current affairs programme...