Broadcasters have long opposed the moratorium that effectively barred them from covering campaign issues from 2pm the day before an election or referendum. They weren’t the only ones to think it made no sense. The Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII), for instance, called it “an outdated regulatory framework in a post-truth” era.
The stance that Coimisiún na Meán, which has now finally scrapped the moratorium, is likely to have taken most seriously was that of the Electoral Commission, which in its report last July on this year’s family and care referendums was unequivocal. At a time when online media and social media is so prevalent, it said, the moratorium was “now anomalous and open to potential exploitation” and should be removed.
When it came to countering online misinformation, broadcasters were stymied at a crucial point. This was massively concerning, of course. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that the moratorium also needlessly hampered coverage of legitimate news.
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The media regulator’s own consultation document contained a statement of the obvious when it noted how the “wide and last-minute of circulation of information can occur online”. It then referred obliquely to an “incident of this sort” occurring when a website published a leaked document just after 2pm the day before the family and care referendums — referring to the Ditch’s publication of the Attorney General’s legal advice to the Government.
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Still, no one should have had to wait until 2024 to understand that the restrictions tied broadcast media’s hands behind their backs. In its submission, RTÉ lamented the absurdity of its online news service being permitted to report on significant breaking stories during the moratorium period while its television and radio programmes could not.
The original intention of the moratorium was to create an environment in which voters have the same news available to them as other voters, to limit the last-minute spread of information that is difficult to verify or evaluate, and to give voters space to reflect on their position. These 1990s aspirations, born in an age of finite media, seem fanciful today.
As for the conviction that broadcast media have — or had — special powers of persuasion when it comes to decisions made in the voting booth, some might call that flattering, if ultimately just as quaint.
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