RTÉ has been slammed for seeming to call for online censorship and asking for more State funding during an Oireachtas Committee meeting.
RTÉ’s Head of Strategy, Rory Coveney (who is the brother of Fine Gael Deputy leader Simon Coveney) spoke to an Oireachtas committee meeting last week about what he called “online harm,” and welcomed the government’s move to implement greater “enforcement” and “monitoring” of media.
Rory Coveney (RTE director of strategy, and brother of Simon Coveney) offers RTE's support for internet censorship to the Oireachtas, and expresses their desire to see suppression of "fake news" and "misinformation" added to the bill. #FreeSpeech #censorship pic.twitter.com/djRM4fPBAO
— JRD (@JRD0000) May 20, 2021
“I’m finally just going to touch on the issue of online harm,” he said.
“You know, the real-world consequences of online behaviour have never been more apparent. From the increasing evidence of misuse of online data in the electoral process, to the consequences of online bullying and hate speech, to the increasing blurring of the editorial and the commercial, and the insidious rise of misinformation and fake news, online harm is no longer an abstract issue. It is a material risk to the wellbeing of citizens, societies and nations.
“RTÉ welcomes, therefore, the initiative to create greater monitoring and enforcement around online harm in this bill.”
However, Coveney, speaking on behalf of RTÉ, was critical that the government had not included “fake news” as a definition of online harm.
“At present however, the bill excludes misinformation, or disinformation, or fake news as a category from the definitions of online harm,” he said.
“In RTÉ’s view this is a very significant omission. Accuracy in news and information is extremely important regardless of how the information is delivered.
“We know that content which is deliberately designed to mislead or confuse distributed at scale online can cause real harm. This is an area which RTÉ believes needs to be specifically addressed in the area of regulating harmful content.”
Reactions on social media were harsh, with one individual tweeting: “RTÉ lectures us all on the dangers of “Fake News” – the irony.”
“Any journalist worth their salt would vehemently oppose this kind of censorship, but then there are no real journalists left in Ireland,” said another. “The younger ones are practically begging for it to be introduced, lest they be “offended” by someone with an opposing viewpoint.”
“RTÉ needs to get their own house in order where accurate reporting and fake news is concerned,” one added.
“It has become a government propaganda agency. It’s social media that is exposing this bias in RTÉ, and they want it censored.”
“I’m nearly sure RTÉ have given a lot of disinformation on numerous issues, particularly on affairs in the US. Have they ever retracted any of the false information regarding the Russian hoax? Is it one rule for them and another for the peasants?”, said one.
Later in the Committee meeting, Senator Malcolm Byrne of Fianna Fáil praised Coveney and RTÉ’s work, and asked him how the government could help RTÉ “to continue to provide [a] trusted voice”, whereupon Coveney asked for more money.
“Critically – and I keep banging on about this – but it’s about resources,” said Coveney.
“Putting in place, not just amounts of money, but also predictability over time so we can make the necessary investments in technology, we can make the necessary investments in long-form reporting, for example.”
Some commenters called to “defund RTÉ” and make it a voluntary subscription service, with others calling Coveney’s position a “clear conflict of interest.”
Clear conflict of interest.
— DublinComments (@dublincomments) May 21, 2021
Yes. Clear conflict of interest there.
— JRD (@JRD0000) May 20, 2021