The Family and Media Association has told RTÉ that it must allow fair play in the debate over same-sex marriage and civil unions.Having examined three recent broadcasts by RTÉ, FMA has concluded that these indicate that the station is “upping the ante in the pursuit of a radical ‘gay agenda’.”
Alternative voices in this debate are not fairly treated, it added.
“This muffling or outright silencing of the voice of the traditional family is a new form of censorship which is giving an Orwellian feel to the national airwaves,” said Donal O’Sullivan-Latchford, spokesman for FMA.
“It amounts to no less than a cynical attempt to manipulate public opinion.”
According to him, the programmes which were aired in the space of just eleven days between February 14 and February 24, have been used to champion the cause of ‘gay marriage’, while leaving the voice for traditional marriage unheard or grossly underrepresented.
The broadcasts in question were Today with Pat Kenny (RTÉ Radio One, February 14), Prime Time (RTÉ One, February 19), and Spirit Moves (RTÉ Radio One, February 24).
In Pat Kenny’s Today programme, (Feb 14 08) representatives of a new group called LGBT Noise were allowed to make a case for gay marriage without the presence of any studio opposition.
Following the transmission, RTÉ ignored two requests made by the Family and Media Association to redress this clear imbalance, by allowing those opposed to gay marriage to make their own case in a subsequent broadcast.
Then, on the following Tuesday (19 Feb 08), RTÉ’s Prime Time did a feature which opened with a ‘hard case’ story about a grandmother, Margaret Gill, whose lesbian daughter had been killed in an accident, leaving a son in the care of her lesbian partner.
The studio debate was further weighted against panellist David Quinn both by the presence of an additional panellist, (Grainne Healey of Marriage Equality) who was promoting gay marriage and by comments from presenter Miriam O’Callaghan who referred to Mrs Gill as a “typical traditional middle Ireland woman” whose mind had been changed about gay marriage as a result of her personal experience.
On Sunday’s Spirit Moves the line up was 3 in favour of gay marriage to two against.
“Any openness on the part of listeners to the arguments supporting traditional marriage would have been interfered with by an ad which asked the loaded question, ‘Should gay couples be allowed to give children a loving home?’” said Mr O’Sullivan-Latchford.
FMA now intends to bring the matter further.
"We are definitely going to bring a complaint to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC)," Mr O'Sullivan-Latchford said.
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