There is to be a General Election to Dáil Éireann in Ireland on Saturday 8th February 2020. As part of the coverage for this, the national broadcaster RTÉ has decided to have a Leaders’ Debate. Sadly only two political party leaders will be allowed – Leo Varadkar, An Taoiseach and Leader of Fine Gael, and Micheál Martin, Leader of Fianna Fáíl. Now, to my mind that means that RTÉ will be in breach of section 39(1)(b) of the Broadcasting Act 2009.

39.— (1) Every broadcaster shall ensure that—

[…]

(b) the broadcast treatment of current affairs, including matters which are either of public controversy or the subject of current public debate, is fair to all interests concerned and that the broadcast matter is presented in an objective and impartial manner and without any expression of his or her own views, except that should it prove impracticable in relation to a single broadcast to apply this paragraph, two or more related broadcasts may be considered as a whole, if the broadcasts are transmitted within a reasonable period of each other,

Broadcasting Act 2009, section 39(1)(b), e|ISB, online, http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/act/18/section/39/enacted/en/html#sec39 accessed 2020-01-18.

I have emailed feedback@rte.ie to complain about this lack of impartiality and partisan act. It is important that we can hear from more than just the these two parties – that really seem to be more or less only divided on who was for and against The Treaty about a hundred years ago.

There are other parties whose leaders should be allowed to debate including Brendan Howlin from Labour and Mary Lou Macdonald from Sinn Féin.

I believe that RTÉ’s action could threaten the democracy of the State. Surely, that should not be allowed to happen?