Vincent Browne has hit out at what he described as RTÉ’s “refusal” to allocate equal time to candidates in the upcoming European election.
The veteran broadcaster, who hosted Tonight With Vincent Browne on TV3 for a decade between 2007 and 2017, said it was “wrong” that “all candidates” were not being given the same hearing.
Notably, there are a total of 73 candidates running in the upcoming European elections – 23 in Dublin, 23 in Ireland South, and 27 in Midlands-North-West. This has resulted in all of the debates to date only featuring a relatively small selection of the total candidates on offer.
A total of 74 candidates have declared for the forthcoming European Parliament elections across the three constituencies of Ireland South, Midlands-North-West and Dublinhttps://t.co/5zuorontHo
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) April 30, 2024
“Yes, this is cumbersome and, at times, not scintillating, but essential,” Browne said in a post on social media site X.
“We did it on TV3, so why not on RTÉ?”
RTE’s refusal to give equal time to all candidates for EU Parliament is wrong. Yes, this is cumbersome and, at times, not scintillating, but essential. We did it on TV3, so why not on RTÉ.
— Vincent Browne (@vincentbrowne) May 30, 2024
Browne is not the only individual to complain about a perceived lack of airtime given to smaller election candidates during this cycle.
Fianna Fáil’s candidate for the Limerick Mayoral race, Dee Ryan, complained ahead of this past Monday’s RTÉ debate that a number of independent candidates had been “excluded” from the programme, saying that this was “fundamentally unfair” and a “disservice to the voters”.
Fianna Fáil’s candidate for Limerick Mayor has said it is “fundamentally unfair” that a number of Independent candidates are “excluded” from an upcoming RTÉ debate.
Meanwhile, RTÉ says that "fair treatment does not mean equal treatment between parties":https://t.co/2vlFeeXFnB
— gript (@griptmedia) May 22, 2024
Similarly, some candidates in the election, such as radio host Niall Boylan of the Independent Ireland party, and lecturer Rory Hearne of the Social Democrats, have both complained about their omission from various debates.
However, despite concerns being raised, RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst has insisted that “the criteria for participation in the debates are set out openly and clearly” on State broadcaster’s website.
RTÉ has said that “the overall consideration in our coverage is fairness – however fair treatment does not mean equal treatment between parties, groups and candidates.”
According to RTÉ’s “Broadcast Compliance” document on how they intend to approach the 2024 debates, the broadcaster points out that according to the Media Commission, “broadcasters may reasonably have regard to ‘contextual factors’” regarding who they put on their programs.
These factors include current elected representation; first preference votes in a prior election; candidates campaigning on aligned election issues who are not members of a political party; the number of candidates being fielded; a diversity of political perspectives; and current support as evident from opinion polls.
Notably, the largest number of candidates on a single debate stage in modern political history occurred during the 2016 Republican Party primary debates in the US, with 17 individuals seeking the party’s nomination to run for the US presidency. In order to manage this number of candidates logistically, the party opted to feature the top 11 candidates (based on polling data) in one main debate, with the remaining less popular candidates participating in an earlier “undercard” debate.