TV3 accused RTE of ‘de facto censorship’ of its channel

The Managing Director of TV3 wrote a letter to RTE in April claiming that the national broadcaster was engaging in ‘de facto censorship of TV3’ by excluding references to the channel and its talent.

In a letter to Director General of RTE, Dee Forbes, TV3’s Pat Kiely emphasised their “combined efforts to support the television industry in Ireland” but accused the national broadcaster of carrying out “what looks like a complete ban on any reference to TV3 content or people.”

He stated that while there were a small number of acknowledgments of TV3’s work, this was  “completely outweighed by what appears to be a de facto censorship of TV3” and accused them of “a deliberate strategy to keep any references to TV3 to an absolute minimum, if at all”.

Kiely goes on to claim “a pattern has clearly been established to exclude TV3 talent from RTE shows” and “what looks like a complete ban on any reference to TV3 content or people.”

He counted 30 RTE guests who had featured on TV3 in the first quarter of 2018 but claimed that no TV3 stars were guests on RTE in return. He implored the Director General, stating “Our healthy competition should act as a catalyst for growth and continued investment in the broadcasting industry” and claimed their exclusion was damaging not only to TV3 business but the ‘broader production industry in Ireland”.

He also challenged Ms Forbes to include TV3 references as part of the state broadcasters duty, saying “Surely it is the remit of the national public service broadcaster to reflect a broader interest in society and television viewers in Ireland….is it not time to adopt a more inclusive policy?”

You can read the full letter below: