Public service broadcasting is too important to the general health of society for it to be left to the broadcasters alone to decide what precisely it means.
It is, therefore, a good thing that there should be a wide-ranging debate and consultation as part of a determined effort to set down in writing what we in Ireland mean by public service broadcasting, and what the citizen and taxpayer is entitled to expect from the national broadcaster, RTÉ. That consultation was given context this week when the Minister for Communication, Mr Dermot Ahern, published a Draft Public Service Broadcasting Charter.
What is meant by public service broadcasting in our media culture owes much to the vision of one man: John (later Lord) Reith, the founding father of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Reith's vision was a lofty one: the BBC should "educate, inform and entertain the whole nation" and "bring the best of everything to the greatest number of homes".
In many respects, RTÉ, which evolved in the shadow of the BBC, has sought to emulate these standards. RTÉ has done this through the professionalism and dedication of its staff, who have functioned against a backdrop of Broadcasting Acts and guidelines for programme- makers. What the station has not had is a Charter - a constitution, as it were - that enunciates the station's vision and declaims its lofty goals.
The Draft Charter published this week is a good start. It seeks under three broad headings - Guiding Principles, Provision of Services, and Accountability - to define RTÉ's goals. The content of the last two match, almost but not quite entirely, RTÉ's own draft charter, submitted to the Government as part of its recent campaign for a licence fee increase.
Much that is said under the heading Guiding Principles has merit. RTÉ, say the draft principles, "shall reflect the democratic, social and cultural values of Irish society and the need to preserve media pluralism"; the station "shall strive to reflect fairly and equally the regional, cultural and political diversity of Ireland and its peoples"; and editorial bias in terms of gender, age, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or membership of a minority will not be allowed.
Such ideals of inclusiveness deserve strong support but should not, in the final document, be so phrased as to attract the accusation of political correctness. The draft is less sure-footed when it says that "events should not be assessed and reported from a Dublin perspective alone". The implication that this happens at present is unfair on RTÉ's national coverage. Over 50 per cent of people live in Leinster, half of them in Dublin city and county - and coverage must also take due account of this reality.
It is to be hoped the RTÉ Charter which emerges at the end of this consultation process will not itself be the creature of sectional interests. Above all, it must reflect that RTÉ belongs ultimately to the people is seeks to serve - its listeners, viewers and licence payers.