THE Broadcasting Complaints Commission has rejected a complaint of bias in RTE's reporting of last year's Wicklow by election. A separate complaint about the station's handling of comments critical of Eamon de Valera has also been dismissed.
A complainant who alleged that Ms Mildred Fox had been under represented in profiles of the by election candidates argued that, while RTE could not have anticipated Ms Fox topping the poll, it might have guessed she would attract a major sympathy vote following the death of her father, the late Johnny Fox TD.
The very brief profile accorded her failed to meet the station's obligation of impartiality, it was argued.
The commission found that, as Ms Fox was running as an independent, she was not entitled to the same amount of coverage as the candidates of the main parties.
A second complaint alleged that RTE dealt inadequately with comments on the This Week radio programme which, the complainant said, slandered the late Eamon de Valera.
The programme, broadcast last March, featured a debate about fund raising for the Labour Party in which broadcaster Una Claffey interviewed the general secretary of the party, Mr Ray Kavanagh, and the Fianna Fail TD, Ms Sile de Valera. Mr Kavanagh made comments about de Valera's fund raising in the US for the Irish Press.
In response to the commission, Ms Claffey said she bad immediately cut across" Mr Kavanagh and offered Ms Sile de Valera the chance to defend her grandfather.
The commission accepted that Ms Claffey had adequately responded to Mr Kavanagh's remarks.
