BAI says ‘no automatic requirement’ to equal referendum airtime

There is no obligation on broadcasters to give an even equal airtime split to both sides in a referendum, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) has stated.

In its latest guidelines for the forthcoming referendums on the abolition of the Seanad and the creation of a new court of appeal, the broadcasting watchdog spelled out that there is no “automatic requirement to allocate an absolute equality of airtime to opposing views during coverage of a referendum”.

Instead, the BAI stressed that the “allocation of airtime must be equitable and fair to all interests and undertaken in a transparent manner”.

Both referendums are scheduled to take place on Friday, October 4th.

Finding arguments on both sides of the Seanad debate will not be difficult, but the broadcasters could struggle to find opposing voices for the relatively uncontentious court of appeal referendum.

The Government proposes setting up a new court of appeal which would ease the backlog on the Supreme Court, where there is currently a four-year wait.

Currently the Supreme Court is the last court of appeal, not just for cases of constitutional importance, but for all cases coming from the lower courts.

The BAI recommends that referendum debates should not always be considered as adversarial, but time should be given for more “reflective consideration of the sometimes complex issues involved in a referendum debate”.

The BAI also stated that it is “inappropriate for persons involved with referendum interests to present programmes during the referendum campaign period”.