Cathal BarryThe Pro Life Campaign (PLC) has said it hopes the decision of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) to uphold complaints made against The Ray D’Arcy Show will “set down a marker” for the way in which abortion is dealt with by the media.
The complaints related to an interview with Colm O’Gorman of Amnesty International about Ireland’s abortion law.
Responding to the BAI’s ruling that the RTÉ radio programme had breached the requirements of the Broadcasting Acts for fairness, objectivity and impartiality in news and current affairs, Sinead Slattery of the PLC said it is “no surprise that a number of people pursued official complaints” against the particular edition of the programme.
“The public are entitled to hear both sides of the story on the abortion issue. It does a grave disservice to listeners when the state-funded broadcaster pushes one agenda.
“The Ray D’Arcy Show has continually failed to seek interviews with women who regret their abortions or women who gave birth to babies with life-limiting conditions despite a difficult pre-natal diagnosis. It’s not good enough,” she said.
Quoting from the BAI decision which said that listeners to The Ray D’Arcy Show “would have reasonably concluded that the presenter endorsed the views of his interviewee and was articulating a partisan position”, the spokeswoman said she hoped the decision “will set down a marker for the way in which the abortion issue is dealt with by all sections of the Irish media”.
“The public deserves to hear both sides of the story,” she said.
In all, the BAI considered six complaints.
Of the six complaints, seen by The Irish Catholic, three complaints about the programme were upheld, two were upheld in part and one was rejected.