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ANNUAL REPORT & GROUP FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2008
Charter
The Public Service Broadcasting Charter, published by Government
in June 2004, identifies the guiding principles for RTÉ and includes
a number of specific reporting requirements. These reporting
requirements have been dealt with elsewhere in this report, other
than as set out below.
AUDIENCE COUNCIL
Structure and Composition
- The Council acts as an advisory group to the RTÉ Authority
- The Chairman of the Authority’s Programme Committee is an
ex-officio ordinary member of the Council
- The Council consists of representative and individual members
who have a general interest in broadcasting and, in the case of
representatives, a specialist interest in one or more of the key
strands of programming
- Each Council has a life span of four years and elects a
Chairman annually from among its members. A designated
Secretary is provided by RTÉ.
The members of the Council participate on a voluntary basis, being
reimbursed vouched expenses only.
As noted in last year’s report, the initial four-year term of office
of the Council was due to end in December 2007. However, in
the absence of clarity at that time on the status of any future
Council and pending the introduction of the proposed broadcasting
legislation, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural
Resources consented to the RTÉ Authority’s request to extend
the term of office of the Audience Council for a further year to
December 2008, or such shorter period, as was necessitated by the
enactment of the forthcoming Broadcasting Bill.
There had been some issues which had been the cause of
concern to the Council during its first four years of operation (e.g.
vice-chairman, quorum, non-attendance) and at the meeting on
24 th January 2008 it adopted new Standing Orders which had
been revised to take account of these concerns. The amendments
included (i) the establishment of the position of Vice-Chairperson;
(ii) the quorum to be 10 or 50% of valid membership +1
whichever is the lesser and (iii) the provision that Council
Members who miss three meetings of the Council in any one
year or three consecutive meetings spread over two years shall
automatically cease to be Members of the Council unless just
cause be shown. This latter provision resulted in the membership
of the Council reducing by five from 22 to 17 during 2008.
Alison McCullagh and Des Sheridan were elected to serve as
Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson respectively for 2008. There
were five meetings held during 2008.
During 2008 the Audience Council had presentations from RTÉ
executives on the role of the Programme Acceptance Viewer; RTÉ’s
coverage of the Lisbon Referendum and the procedures in place to
ensure balance; a detailed briefing on the Broadcasting Bill which
had been published in Spring 2008 with particular emphasis on the
section dealing with the appointment of an Audience Council; RTÉ’s
Interculturalism Policy and Access Services including sub-titling.
Other specific issues which arose during the year included the
decision to cease transmission on Medium Wave; the decision to
enter Dustin as Ireland’s representative at Eurovision; promotion of
the Irish language and Arts programming.
The relationship with the BBCNI Audience Council was further
developed and consolidated during 2008. It had been agreed
at a meeting between the Chairpersons of the RTÉ and BBCNI
Audience Councils in Autumn 2007 that it would be beneficial if
members of each Council could attend a meeting of the other’s
in an observer capacity. To this end, representatives from the
BBCNI Audience Council attended the March meeting of the RTÉ
Audience Council and representatives of the RTÉ Audience Council
attended a meeting of the BBCNI Council in June. There was a
joint meeting of both Councils hosted by RTÉ in September 2008.
RTÉ’s Director-General and the Controller of BBCNI as well as
senior executives from both organisations also attended. One of the
major issues of mutual interest to come out at this meeting was the
switchover from Analogue to DTT. Another issue of common interest
was engagement with the audience. There was also a suggestion
that joint research projects on issues of mutual interest might be
looked at.
It was also agreed that the possibility of a bi-annual meeting of the
three Audience Councils on the island of Ireland (i.e. RTÉ, BBCNI and
the Council for TG4 (to be established under the new legislation)) be
explored as it could provide a useful forum to exchange views and
share ideas of mutual interest.
The Council held its final meeting on 13 th November 2008. An
update to the Final Report prepared in November 2007 was
agreed at that meeting and submitted to the Authority thereafter.
Members wished to reiterate the importance of some continuity of
membership on the new Council.
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