Coimisiún na Meán project reaches opening credits as BAI bows out

After 14 years, the final credits have rolled on the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). The media regulator that succeeded the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland in 2009 has now been dissolved, with its functions transferred to Coimisiún na Meán (Media Commission).

While it might not sound like a long time for a State body to be in operation, in the media industry, 14 years is an aeon. The Broadcasting Act 2009 that established the BAI did not use the word “online” once and made only scant reference to broadcasting services “provided in a non-linear manner”.

And, though Google-owned YouTube was already four years old by the time of the Act’s passing, the legislators certainly did not anticipate either the scope of the online harms that would emerge in the decade to come or the extent to which such harmful content would become a facet of, even dictate, the political conversation. Perhaps this was understandable. Who would have believed everything that happened next?

The Coimisiún, created by the sprawling Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, is expected to eventually need more than 300 staff – more than nine times the BAI’s complement. Such is the scale of the task ahead as it is charged with overseeing both an updated regulatory framework for broadcasting and video-on-demand services and new regulation of online content, particularly as it affects children. Not insignificant powers of investigation and sanction have been conferred upon it. We wait to see how they will be used.

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Led by executive chairperson Jeremy Godfrey, online safety commissioner Niamh Hodnett, media development commissioner Rónán Ó Domhnaill and former BAI chief executive turned broadcasting commissioner Celene Craig, with a commissioner for digital services expected to be appointed in due course, the Coimisiún is now preparing its first of many work programmes.

Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin welcomed its formal establishment on Wednesday, saying she knew the executive chair and three commissioners appointed to date would “form a dedicated and strong team”.

The Minister seems highly aware that what the Government is attempting to do here will not be easy. In the Dáil last September, she described the legislation as “ambitious, comprehensive and wide-ranging”. But the era of tech giants’ self-regulation is over, as is the era of pretending video-on-demand services don’t exist. This is a commendable attempt to catch-up with the reality of the media world before it evolves once more.

Indeed, to guess what it will look like in another 14 years could require some imagination.