A chara, - If, as seems to be the case, the National Union of Journalists has had a positive "pro-choice" policy on abortion for the past 20 years, then surely RTE, as the national broadcasting authority (whatever about the other `free" commercial media) has a duty to frequently and regularly remind the public of this fact.This is especially so when pro-choice unions also include presenters and researchers who set the agenda and the make-up of panels, and where almost every RTE debate on the subject is introduced by either the presenter or the first panellist spoken to with the preface that anything so democratic as a referendum would be "bitter and divisive".Serious debates need not be bitter. And while all politics of choice, like good or evil options, are "divisive", we all know that people in Switzerland and other European countries frequently have referendums as binding consultations with the people, without rancour, in spite of the huge diversity in language, religion and ethnic origin of those involved. You have very little of the hype, the campaigning, the in-your-face lobbying of vested interests.
People simply go to the polls and express their preferences. One cannot help feeling that lots of the "bitterness" in such cases in this country is due to RTE's failure to talk to "ordinary people" - by which I mean those outside the highly organised vested interests, the unelected members of the "partnership" which seems to have replaced the Opposition in the Dail, and those hyped "very angry" persons who want their 15 seconds of fame on national television while Charlie Bird continues to give us his views of just how angry he feels some people are, instead of sticking to facts or asking some hard questions on behalf of the public. - Yours, etc.,Nollaig O' Gadhra, Na Forbacha, Gaillimh.