Sir, - In his article, "Abandoning our grip on the airwaves" (Opinion, October 23rd), Fintan O'Toole makes some observations on the role of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI).
In reference to privatisation in the telecommunications sector, he states: "These developments have at least been the subject of public interest and debate". He then states that "with little debate" the BCI introduced its new ownership and control policy last week.
Mr O'Toole appears to be unaware of the public consultation process engaged in by the BCI/IRTC on this topic. Last April the BCI began a public consultation process in which we invited sectoral representatives, other interested parties and members of the public to respond to a range of questions/issues on the subject.
A document, prepared in conjunction with Marie McGonigle, Lecturer in Media Law at NUI Galway, outlined a series of issues considered relevant to ownership and control policy. The commission received 33 responses from a wide range of interested parties, including one from The Irish Times. We did not receive any observations from Mr O'Toole, nor, I understand, did we receive any enquiries from him in relation to the process.
All of the responses were made available from July and a summary report was published in September. There was overwhelming support for the principle that regulation of content rather than a focus on the ownership of the service was desirable. Indeed, The Irish Times's response observed that "in order to safeguard the local character of a radio station, The Irish Times submits that the focus should be more on local content than local ownership".
The approach put forward in the consultation document and supported almost unanimously by the respondents has now been incorporated in the commission's policy document released last week.
There are many issues referred to in Mr O'Toole's article which I will happily address in another forum. However, his failure to acknowledge the extensive public consultation undertaken by the BCI prior to the introduction of the revised policy and his failure to raise even one question with this organisation on the topic prior to the publication of his article is at best an example of lazy journalism and, at worst, a deliberate distortion of the position to fulfil a particular agenda. - Yours, etc.,
Michael O'Keeffe, Chief Executive, Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, Dublin 2.
Fintan O'Toole writes: Michael O'Keeffe focuses on a side-issue rather than on my main point: that the BCI's new policy provoked little public debate. The difference between consultation before the formulation of a policy and debate after its announcement is obvious.