The Mayo News

COMPLAINTS about  bias and unfairness in a TV3 documentary about the controversial Corrib gas project have been rejected Corrib complaints about documentary rejected by commission


Áine Ryan

COMPLAINTS about  bias and unfairness in a TV3 documentary about the controversial Corrib gas project, aired during the summer, have been rejected by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC), The Mayo News has learned.
The documentary, Paul Williams Investigates: The Battle for the Gas Field elicited strong responses from protestors in the wake of its broadcast some months ago.
It also led to a number of detailed complaints to the BCC, since subsumed under the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.
One of the complainants, Frank McDonald, Environment Editor of The Irish Times, challenged the objectivity and impartiality of the programme, which was made by Praxis.
The BCC judgment notes that Mr McDonald states it was ‘one of the most tendentious pieces of television he had seen in a long time’. 
“The entire thrust of the programme seemed to be to highlight intimidation by the protesters, led (it claimed) by “shadowy figures” associated with various strands of militant republicanism.  Although the film showed Shell security men videoing protestors and even a number of gardaí breaking the windscreen and other windows of a protestor’s car with their truncheons, the voiceover by Paul Williams made no mention of these incidents”.
Mr McDonald also questioned a claim by a Shell vice-president that a person living near the pipeline ‘would be 100,000 times more likely to be killed by lightning’ than he or she would be likely to be killed by an explosion caused by any rupture in the pipeline”.
He observed that it failed to explain the fundamental reasons for the foundation of Shell to Sea, or the basis of the original consents by former Minister Frank Fahey, shortly before leaving office in 2002. He further argues that Praxis made no reference to the fact that An Bord Pleanála refused planning permission for the project originally, but later overturned the recommendation of its inspector.
Responding, the BCC noted that Shell to Sea protestors, Maura Harrington and Niall Harnett were afforded the opportunity to extensively state their cases, without interruption during the programme.
The response also argues that the presenter, Paul Williams made it clear that the issue was ‘complex’, and that ‘everything is keenly contested’. Mr Williams also made it clear that there were ‘allegations and counter-allegations’ regarding all of the Shell to Sea controversy.
The judgment also notes that it was factually correct to state that Mayo’s five TDs supported the Shell project and that of 138 complaints investigated by the Independent Garda Ombudsman’s Authority, 136 had been dismissed.     
Referring directly to the text of Mr McDonald’s complaint, it stated that much of these contextual references were not relevant to the content of the programme.
“It is entirely up to a broadcaster’s discretion as to the level and nature of the programme it broadcasts, provided always that it does so in accordance with statutory obligations.  Accordingly, this complaint would appear to primarily concern the actual gas field itself rather than the programme,” the judgment asserts.
It asserts that it used tabloid and colloquial style language with both sides and from the outset attempted to show the gulf between the opposing sides. 
“In this regard, the programme included two members of the local community who supported the project, local Gardaí and employees of Shell and on the opposing side, the principal protestors,” it argues.
Responding last night to the findings, Ms Maura Harrington said: “As with every other State agency where Shell to Sea is concerned, the BCC just rolled over.”
Ms Harrington is the subject of a TG4 programme, Cómhrá, to be broadcast on  Thursday night next (October 8) at 7.30pm.

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