A letter written by Abby Wynne is gaining traction on social media as the woman spells out her reasons for refusing to pay the TV licence to An Post.
She writes in response to a written notification that she is ”well aware that my TV licence has now expired”.
Wynne continues saying she has been a law-abiding citizen all her life and had previously always paid her licence on time. She adds that, as An Post had quoted from the text of the Broadcasting Act in its letter to her, she would now quote from the same Act back to them.
She details ways in which she feels RTÉ has breached its contract with her as an Irish Citizen, how they have failed in their duty of objectivity, neutrality, and of acting to serve and protect the public interest.
She points to Section 3, 39 part 1, (a) and (b): and part 5 of the Broadcasting Act saying
“Our national broadcaster has broken this act many times over the last almost 3 years. This pledge to us to protect us from the government, to hold everyone accountable, and to treat people as human beings and not as stupid children has not been held fast and strong.”
As The Independent recently revealed, figures published by RTÉ detail how of 119 of their staff members, 22 earned between €150,000 and €250,000, and that the remaining 97 €100,000 and €150,000.
Interestingly this data does not account for top broadcasters like Ryan Tubridy (€495,000), Ray Darcy (€450,000) or Joe Duffy (€392,494), as these are technically not RTE staff but private contractors.
RTÉ Director General, Dee Forbes, earned a total of €306,000 in 2021 including pension and a car allowance of €25,000.
Wynne says that because of the “biassed reporting” and “fear- based outlook” of RTÉ over the last 3 years she has had to completely stop engaging with the national broadcaster for the good of her own health, saying RTÉ’s reporting leaves her feeling “physically sick”.
She adds that her elderly mother is “currently afraid to leave her home.” and how she had to be convinced that spending time with her grandchildren would not lead to severe illness and death.
“They have a severe lack of accountability to the Irish people. And have gone so far off course that I personally believe they are doing great damage to the mental health of this country, and as a result of that stress, they are also doing damage to the physical health of our country” she says.
She continues,
“Because of the top journalists in RTÉ I have felt like I am an enemy of the state, personally attacked for my choices. Choices which have been vindicated by the current release of data which, I may add, has still not been broadcast to the general public by our national broadcaster because it does not suit them to do so. This is a disgrace to the people of the highest order.”
She ends her letter with a quote from Paraic Pearse,
“The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally.”