Dublin taxi-drivers have accused the national broadcaster, RTÉ, of misrepresenting drivers and attempting to undermine their protests through its radio coverage of a SIPTU drivers' demonstration yesterday morning.
More than 200 taxi-drivers assembled at the RTÉ studios in Donnybrook at around 10 a.m. yesterday in protest at what they claimed was inaccurate and adverse reporting during the Morning Ireland radio programme of an earlier taxi protest on Dublin's Merrion Street.
A group of taxi-drivers, who are members of SIPTU, gathered on Merrion and Kildare streets between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. yesterday to protest over pay and working conditions.
Four traffic reports, broadcast on Morning Ireland between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., gave the number of taxis at the protest as 15. SIPTU and other radio stations reported that there were close to 200 taxis at the event.
SIPTU spokesman Mr Jerry Brennan said the drivers who took part felt their protest was deliberately undermined.
"The drivers were very disgruntled with RTÉ and the misrepresentation of their numbers. They were aggrieved by a perceived agenda on behalf of RTÉ, or the person who made the report, to play down their concerns and the protest."
More then 200 drivers took a "spontaneous decision" to gather at the RTÉ studios, Mr Brennan said, to demonstrate the strength of their numbers to RTÉ. The protest was orderly and had the assistance of the gardaí, he added.
A spokeswoman for RTÉ said the station had taken an editorial decision not to cover the Merrion Street protest. "There are a number of these sort of protests every single day - we cannot cover every single one," she said.
The item on the protest aired on Morning Ireland had been part of the AA Roadwatch traffic report, she said.
AA Roadwatch spokeswoman, Ms Emma Caulfield, said the report reflected the facts of the protest.
"Roadwatch reports travel and traffic disruptions. The disruption due to this protest was minimal, according to our council sources there was hardly any disruption at all.
"We reported the facts. The taxi-drivers are just trying to make a bigger deal of it than it was. We did nothing wrong."
The Merrion Street demonstration was part of a series of taxi stoppages organised by SIPTU since the beginning of February to protest at the apparent decline in standards being applied by the authorities when issuing taxi plates and the deterioration of taxi-drivers' earnings.
