RTÉ HAS been accused of breaching its own rules on the sponsorship of news programmes by allowing an international bank to sponsor Radio 1’s Drivetime programme.
HSBC Corporate Banking Ireland will begin a nine-month sponsorship deal in January.
The National Union of Journalists has called a meeting for today in relation to the deal which was announced yesterday afternoon.
RTÉ’s trade union group secretary Mary Curtin said she was “stunned” by the news which she believed were against the broadcaster’s own rules.
“Drivetime is a news and current affairs programme. Our own guidelines quite specifically state that news and current affairs programme should not be sponsored,” she said.
According to RTÉ’s guidelines, which are published on its website, “by law there can be no sponsorship in children’s and religious programming or in news or current affairs programmes”.
However, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s general advertising code states that only “news programmes shall not be sponsored on radio”.
In a statement, RTÉ said Drivetime met the definition of a current affairs programme as it was not just news but contained items of “human interest, lifestyle and current affairs”.
Today FM's The Last Word, a rival programme to Drivetime, is sponsored by The Irish Times.
