Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Regulator to decide on religious ads

The Minister for Communications has insisted that new guidelines will make it easier for religious organisations to advertise on television and radio.

In the past advertisements for The Irish Catholic and religious bookshop Veritas have been banned due to the current prohibitively restrictive regime.

Speaking in the Dáil last week, Minister Eamon Ryan said: ''I intend to give the broadcasting authority greater freedoms in the area of religious advertising.

''It is seeking such freedoms to reflect the complex variety of issues it needs to address.''

Greater authority

The Minister said he is vesting ''greater authority in the broadcasting authority to make some of the difficult judgment calls that are necessary''. ''That is why I am satisfied my proposals will meet with some success on the part of the regulator, which is looking for a reflective and flexible approach,'' the Minister said.

However, Mr Ryan refused to accept an amendment by Fine Gael that would have considerably eased the restrictions insisting that more flexibility for the regulator was better than legislation.

Mr Ryan had earlier refused to consider any proposal that would allow for religious advertising insisting that such advertising could prove divisive.

However, Ireland is the only member of the European Union (EU) that prohibits such advertisements and a more tolerant approach in Northern Ireland has not caused any problems.

There is broad cross-party support for a change in the restrictions to permit religious publications and other organisations to advertise freely. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour Sinn Fein and independent Oireachtas members have support a campaign for change.

Criticised

Mr Ryan's Green Party colleague Trevor Sargent TD has also criticised the ban that saw a Veritas advertisement rejected because it mentioned that the shop sells ''spiritual gifts''.

An earlier advertisement for The Irish Catholic was banned after it referred to organisations like St Vincent de Paul and mentioned ''the good the Church does''.

The Minister is expected to present his proposals in coming weeks. However, the new regime will not come in to force until the creation of the new Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) which will assume the power of the two current regulators the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC).

The new body will not be established until the Broadcasting Bill is signed by the President, possibly later this year.
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