RTÉ, as a public broadcaster, is required to present current affairs matters in a balanced and fair way. It failed to do this on 15th April 2024 with the airing of its 21.30 flagship programme ‘RTÉ Investigates’ (PrimeTime) which focused on the ‘realities’ of abortion in Ireland today. This programme utterly failed to meet the responsibilities placed on RTÉ by Irish law, including the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022 (specifically Section 46L, (1), (b)). The Pro Life Campaign has taken a complaint to RTÉ and is prepared to refer the complaint further to Coimisiún na Meán.
The concerns of pro-life citizens, who make up at least 1/3 of the electorate in 2018, were totally left out of the airing of RTÉ’s pro-abortion programme. Even many Yes voters would have found the incessant push for abortion which was implicit within RTÉ’s programme to be extremely distasteful. Of particular concern was the omission and misrepresentation of some of its interviewers, such as Dr Jonathan Lord who was described in the programme simply as a ‘consultant gynaecologist’, whilst no mention was made of his current role as Medical Director for MSI Reproductive Choices (one of the UK’s largest abortion advocate and provider organisations). Meanwhile, Veronica O’Keane was described simply as a ‘psychologist’, omitting the fact she played a prominent role on the Yes side in 2018 and was a committee member of the group Doctors for Choice. It would never be allowed to pass for a pro-life doctor to appear on an RTÉ programme speaking about abortion without the programme mentioning his/her background as a pro-life campaigner.
Because of the blatant bias exhibited by RTÉ in its programme aired on 15th April, all pro-life citizens are encouraged to bring pressure to bear on RTÉ by lodging a complaint with the broadcaster. The more complaints it receives, the more the pressure will mount on RTÉ. Its complaints procedure can be read here: https://about.rte.ie/contact/complaints/
