Midwest accused of Corrib censorship

Midwest accused of Corrib censorship


Áine Ryan

LOCAL radio station, Midwest has been accused of blatant censorship in its refusal to advertise a fundraising event, organised by peace and justice group Afri (Action from Ireland), for its Rossport Five fund.
Speaking to The Mayo News yesterday, Mr Paul Claffey, Managing Director of Midwest Radio, confirmed he considered the ad to be ‘politically inciting’ and therefore referred it to the BCI (Broadcasting Commission of Ireland). 
The event – featuring Christy Moore and Booker prize winner Anne Enright – attracted an audience of around 350 to Dublin’s Sugar Club on Sunday night last. Rossport Five’s Willie Corduff was also a guest speaker.
Proceeds will go towards a study by Afri on how this country could have benefited from the controversial Corrib gas, if government had negotiated a different deal. “The Corrib gas reserves are worth billions of euro and it will all be given to Shell. Imagine, if instead, we could use some of this money to stop the children’s wards being close in hospitals,” said Mr Joe Murray, Co-Ordinator of Afri yesterday.
He questioned Mid-West Radio’s impartiality regarding the Corrib gas project and its decision not to run the 15-second advertisement – which ran on RTE radio last week.    
“Would an advertisement paid for by Shell and referring to Shell’s claimed environmental record, for example, be considered to be ‘politically inciting’ and pulled from the schedule?”, asked Afri Co-Ordinator Joe Murray.
Explaining his position yesterday, Mr Paul Claffey told The Mayo News that the station was curtailed by broadcasting regulations from advertising certain events that may have a certain political alignment.
“We can’t advertise a Fianna Fáil or a Fine Gael function, for example. So any time we have any doubt we refer it to the BCI. They have informally responded to that communication and said we were right to have concerns about it,” said Mr Claffey.
A spokeswoman for the BCI yesterday referred The Mayo News to Section 10 (3) of the Radio and Television Act 1988. It stipulates that: “No advertisement shall be broadcast which is directed towards any religious or political end or which has any relation to an industrial dispute.”
She confirmed that the radio station had sought advice.
“Midwest outlined the rationale of their decision [not to run the ad] and we responded informally that, on the face of it, the rationale seemed reasonable. But we are still reviewing this decision in light of the fact that another radio station ran it,” the spokeswoman said.

Oral Hearing 
Meanwhile, yet another oral hearing into the Corrib project begins this morning, Tuesday, May 19, in Belmullet.  An Bord Pleanála Inspector Martin Nolan will preside at the hearing – expected to last up to four weeks – into Shell’s application for a modified onshore pipeline route. The beleaguered project has already undergone two An Bord Pleanála hearings in 2002 and an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearing in early 2007.
The world’s largest undersea pipe-laying vessel the Solitaire is also expected to return to Broadhaven bay later this summer. 
Shell has also recently detailed why the compromise onshore location at Glinsk – the subject of a feasibility study by the company last year – is  not ‘a viable proposition for the terminal’.