In light of RTÉ’s own spectacular u-turn, the Social Democrats have again written to RTÉ to reiterate our request that our Ireland South candidate Susan Doyle be allowed to participate in the upcoming tv debate
RTÉ’s decision to change the qualifying criteria for its tv debate for Limerick’s directly elected mayor means there is no reason it cannot now change the criteria for its Ireland South tv debate to include Social Democrats candidate Susan Doyle, according to Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns.
“RTÉ has today announced it changed the criteria for inclusion in its upcoming tv debate for Limerick’s directly elected mayor. Having initially limited the main panel to eight candidates – including our candidate, Cllr Elisa O’Donovan – a decision has now been made to include all 15 candidates contesting the election.
“This is being done, we are told, in line with updated advice from Coimisiún na Meán, which states:
“Broadcasters should note that elections are dynamic events, and they should give active consideration to their approach to coverage over the duration of the election campaign period and amend this approach if they consider it necessary and appropriate so as to ensure fairness, objectivity, and impartiality.”
“This news was surprising given it’s at complete variance to what the Social Democrats were told last week when we wrote to RTÉ and requested the broadcaster reconsider its exclusion of two of our MEP candidates from their tv debates. As recently as last week, we were told that RTÉ’s qualifying criteria for election debates were “objective”, “impartial” and RTÉ “will not be changing them”.
“Today’s decision to change the criteria for qualification to the Limerick mayoral debate is entirely contrary to RTÉ’s earlier stated position. It is now clear that RTÉ will change criteria, for qualification to tv debates in these important elections, if it wants to. It should be noted that one of RTÉ’s EU election debates has already happened in the absence of our Midlands North West candidate, Rory Hearne. A second debate, for Ireland South, is planned on May 30 and our candidate, Susan Doyle, will also be excluded from that.
“In light of RTÉ’s own spectacular u-turn, the Social Democrats have again written to RTÉ to reiterate our request that our Ireland South candidate Susan Doyle be allowed to participate in the upcoming tv debate. In regular opinion polling, the Social Democrats are revealed to be the fourth most popular party in the country. Further, two separate polls in the past week have revealed that Ms Doyle is in contention to win a seat in Ireland South. Despite this, she remains the only such candidate who will not feature in the debate. RTÉ should not put its thumb on the scale in this discriminatory way.
“Ms Doyle’s exclusion from RTE’s upcoming tv debate puts her at an objective disadvantage to other similarly positioned candidates, all of whom will have an opportunity to take part. With RTÉ now conceding that its own rules can be changed, and qualifying criteria are in fact a moving target, will the broadcaster do the fair thing – and allow Ms Doyle to participate in the debate?”