'Liveline' debate protest censured

Unbalanced debate, inappropriate sexual content and indirect advertising were among six complaints upheld by the Broadcasting…

Unbalanced debate, inappropriate sexual content and indirect advertising were among six complaints upheld by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC) in its decisions for April.

The commission rejected 14 complaints, among them an allegation that an advertisement for an Alfa Romeo car included pederastic suggestions about a schoolboy.

Two of the complaints upheld by the commission related to the RTÉ Radio 1 programme Liveline and presenter Evelyn O'Rourke's handling of a discussion of adoption by gay parents.

The complainants alleged Ms O'Rourke gave little time to opponents of gay adoptive parents and was biased against journalist Hermann Kelly, who had written an article in the Irish Mail on Sunday entitled "Why I am sick of this plaster saint of Irish victim culture".

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RTÉ responded that Mr Kelly's article was seen by critics as deliberately blurring the difference between homosexuality and paedophilia. A number of callers in support of Mr Kelly could not be put on air in the interests of taste and decency, the station said.

However, the BCC found that Mr Kelly was not given sufficient opportunity to reply to opponents of his point of view.

The commission also upheld two complaints against TV3.

The first related to the screening of an advertisement for Halifax Bank. In it, rival bankers attack Halifax staff and scenes depict a man being hit over the head with a chair, while another is set upon by four men and a third is hit in the face with a rolled-up magazine.

The BCC found that the level of violence and the tone of the advertisement made it unsuitable for viewing before the nine o'clock watershed.

A complaint against the Ray D'Arcy show on Today FM relating to an explicit discussion of sex toys was upheld.

Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien is an Irish Times journalist