A "spoof news flash" on radio last December claiming that Pope John Paul II was clinically dead and Cardinal Ratzinger was in charge was highly offensive, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC) has ruled.
Describing the piece as crass, unwarranted, insensitive, asinine and in extremely bad taste, the BCC upheld a complaint by Fr Declan Moriarty about the item on the Breakfast Show with Éamon Dunphy on NewsTalk 106 last December 7th.
Fr Moriarty rang the station and was told it was a joke.
The BCC said: "Fr Moriarty found the 'joke' distasteful, anti-Catholic and insensitive to people suffering from Parkinson's disease and/or arthritis. It also displayed gross disrespect for the leader of the Catholic Church."
NewsTalk 106 said the sketch was intended to add humour to an excellent current affairs programme. It accepted, however, that sketch did cause offence and apologised to Fr Moriarty .
The commission, upholding the complaint, said NewsTalk 106 infringed the Broadcasting Act on taste and decency grounds.
This sketch started with an announcement that John Paul II was clinically dead. The BCC said the humour throughout the sketch was based on the failing health of the Pope, with its "punch-line" being a purported unintelligible speech made by him, during which canned laughter was used.
"Basing humour on the real illness of an individual, and announcing his 'clinical death' in a spoof news flash is not acceptable. Not only is it insensitive, it is asinine and highly offensive," the BCC said.
Also, the manner in which the piece was presented gave cause for concern. It was not until near the end that a listener would have been aware that it was a "spoof" comedy sketch.
"Such crass treatment of the Pope's grave state of health was unwarranted and in extremely bad taste. In the opinion of the commission this sketch was extremely offensive to the Pope, to people and their families and relations with such illnesses, and also to people of religious faith."
The BCC upheld another complaint about the show on the same day. Ms Veronica Healy referred to a promotional piece at 7.15am. It featured a man who boasted about the number of "Filipino" women with whom he had sexual intercourse.
She objected to the crude language used, to the denigration of women suggested and to the racist undertones of the piece.
NewsTalk 106 said it did not accept that the sketch either denigrated women or was in any way racist. It did accept that the language could cause offence.
The BCC said the scenarios presented included discriminatory references to women, some of which were also racist, lewd sexual descriptions and puerile male bravado. "The language and the descriptions used denigrated women, including women from particular ethnic backgrounds."