Tag Archives: RTE

Screen Shot 2014-07-27 at 00.10.12

RTE wishes to clarify that the news report on Wednesday 23 July 2014 did not misinterpret or misrepresent the views of a woman featured within the footage from Gaza.

The pictures and information featured in the report were received by RTÉ from the European Broadcasting Union’s news service. The material contained pictures of a woman with a lengthy sequence of her shouting in the street. The woman begins by referring to children dying, but she then goes on to say that she is ready to wear an explosive jacket and join the fight.

The voiceover on the report was not intended to be a direct translation. The reporter was paraphrasing the woman’s view – clearly stated in the information RTÉ received – that she was ready to resist the Israeli offensive. There was no attempt on RTÉ’s part to misconstrue the woman’s message or any intention to cause confusion. 

The following is information received by RTÉ accompanying the footage:

Date Shot: 23-JUL-2014
Location: GAZA
Country: PALESTINE, STATE OF
Sound: NATURAL   Language: ARABIC

Various parts of Gaza streets are under the rubble. A four storey building collapsed last night leaving more victims among defenseless civilians. EPTV camera was there the moment the building turned into dust.

Shotlist of EPTV correspondent in the street along with residents.

10:27:54:09 Forward zoom of building collapsing live next to ambulance.
10:28:09:22 SOUNDBITE (Arabic), male resident: “There’s one dead their with a severed head, we also found a dead little girl. Down there, we found a dead woman and the corpses of three little girls around her.”
10:28:25:04 – VS of the survivor being rescued
10:28:29:09 – VS of ambulances rushing in the wounded to hospital
10:28:42:24 SOUNDBITE (Arabic), woman in shock and awe shouting: “Four to five children die every single day, where are you people? …a four-storey building fell on their heads, it is horrific, Allah is great, there’s no god but Allah and Mohamed his prophet.”
10:28:57:20 SOUNDBITE (Arabic), woman crying out in despair: ” Stop the war, stop the truce, never say Hamas, never say Fatah, just say Nation of Allah. Listen to me all, I am ready to wear the explosive jacket and joint our fighters…all our children are dying…”
10:29:27:13 – Close of dead teenager wrapped in shroud
10:29:34:05 – GVs of crowd holding stretcher down the street

RTÉ News Report on Gaza broadcast 23 July 2014 (RTE)

Previously: Dear RTÉ

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From RTÉ’s Nine O’Clock News on Wednesday

On the RTÉ Nine O’Clock News on Wednesday there was a segment by RTÉ’s Carole Coleman on the Gaza-Israel conflict, during which a woman in Gaza was on camera shouting.

As the woman is in the frame, Ms Coleman says in her report, ‘This Palestinian says she’s ready to strap on an explosive device and fight.’

Further to this, Abubakr Elsayed, in Donacarney, Co Meath, has created a petition calling for an apology from RTÉ.

From his letter to RTÉ:

I am writing to express my displeasure with your report on RTE news called “Hamas leader rules out ceasefire before negotiations” broadcast on 23/07/2014. In this report the news reporter states that the women in the segment says “She is ready to strap on an explosive device and fight”. Though this is not the case as she clearly said in Arabic “Everyday four kids die, everyday five kids die, where is the world, where is the religion”. This is obvious biased and deceitful reporting.

Anyone?

Watch RTÉ’s report in full here

Immediate apology for obvious biased and deceitful reporting on the Gaza issue (Change.org)

Thanks Droidus McMoidus via Snackbox O’Flaherty

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How many?

Tara O’Brien writes:

“On RTÉ Two television the 56 live games averaged 335,300 per match which represents a 28% increase on the viewing figures for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The Final itself which saw Germany beat Argentina after extra time attracted an average audience of 857,000 viewers, up 13% on 2010.
…Engagement via online and mobile was at an all-time high throughout the World Cup, with 2.5m streams in total across RTÉ Player and RTÉ.ie, compared to 700,000 for the World Cup in 2010, and 950,000 for Euro 2012. With three and a half times as many streams during WC 2014, more than one in three of these streams were on a mobile or tablet device. During the World Cup, the tournament accounted for more than half of all views on RTÉ Player.”

HBSRTE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2d8pyq3zHc

A video entitled ‘RTÉ – views dressed up as news’ was launched by a new pro-life group called Hear Both Sides at the National Vigil For Life in Merrion Square, Dublin this afternoon.

Hear Both Sides writes:

For years, RTÉ has flouted its statutory obligation to provide balance when covering right to life issues like abortion. During the past year, this has been particularly apparent where RTÉ repeatedly failed to provide any objectivity when the abortion legislation before the Dáil was being discussed.

Hear Both Sides has one simple goal – to bring the message about RTÉ bias to the wider public to give people an opportunity to consider the evidence and make up their own minds on the issue.

RTÉ only goes big on abortion stories (whether based on fact or not) that challenge the pro-life side. They never pursue stories that challenge the pro-choice side. This is a fact RTÉ cannot dispute.

Right so.

Pro Life demonstration takes place in Dublin (RTÉ)

Hear Both Sides

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[RTÉ’s managing director of news and current affairs Kevin Bakhurst]

[RTÉ’s managing director of news and current affairs Kevin Bakhurst] said RTÉ was facing legal actions from “some well-known political figures”. While some actions were fair, others were “spurious, expensive and are a public game of who-blinks-first, with a major price tag attached on our side – and where we are dealing with public money.” He added there were “a small number of extremely wealthy and extremely litigious individuals who seek to use the courts to shut down any public debate or discussion of their affairs – which in most cases would be perfectly legitimate areas of exploration or discussion. I think probably enough said on that one.”

Social media a big challenge for courts, says Chief Justice (Ruadhán Mac Cormaic, Irish Times)

Previously: RTÉ And The Lowry Tape

Print And Be Damned, You Say?

Kevin Bakhurst

ciararteHSEgag

[From top: Dr Ciara Kelly on The Saturday Night Show at the weekend and a screengrab from the HSE’s draft contract for the Free GP Care to Children Aged Under Six]

Dr Ciara Kelly, from RTÉ’s Operation Transformation, appeared on The Saturday Night Show last Saturday and spoke to host Brendan O’Connor about Health Minister James Reilly’s free GP care for children under six initiative and specifically about Section 28.4.4 that’s in the draft contract.

Brendan O’Connor: “Ciara, you mentioned there, the Primary Care System, we were all encouraged to go to your GP so you’re not clogging up the hospitals and everything – and in fairness, it’s the only kind of non-dysfunctional part of the Health Service, in the sense that if you want to see a GP, pretty much you can see a GP, usually if you’re lucky, within an hour or two, certainly that day, or the next day, or whatever – it works.”

Dr Ciara Kelly: “It works.”

O’Connor: “Is that going to fall apart now?”

Dr Kelly: “I think so, there are two brilliant things about General Practice – one is, the same day appointment, and in fact if you’re very, very sick and you walk in, probably the instant appointment – and A&E doesn’t provide that anymore. So that, I think is a very important thing. We’re hearing about this ‘Netherland’s Model’ that we’re moving to. The average waiting time to see a GP in the Netherlands is three to four days. And don’t think it’s free there either – they pay 23.9% of their income to have that universal healthcare insurance…”

O’Connor: “They pay a quarter of their income…for their healthcare alone?”

Dr Kelly: “That’s the model we’re moving towards…”

O’Connor: “Are you sure that’s right?”

Dr Kelly: “I promise you, that’s right. Or, people maybe go to the NHS model, one to three weeks is the average waiting time for an appointment GP on the NHS. Currently, what we have in Ireland is a very rare thing – instant access to your GP. And the other thing, I would say, quickly, is that we offer an egalitarian one-tier system, which doesn’t exist in the rest of our health service.
It is the only part of the health service that when you ring up, someone doesn’t say to you, ‘Do you have VHI?’ before they give you the appointment. It doesn’t matter to me whether someone has a medical card, or they are paying money, I will see them the same way – I will see a sick patient with a medical card ahead of a well patient who is private. So, I think we throw that away at our peril, that’s a really good thing – it works.
But the last thing is the gagging clause The gagging clause is part of the ‘Under 6 Contract’ – I will never get an ‘Under 6 Contract’, because I’m grossly critical of the HSE all the time, as you may know, in The Sunday Independent. We have been gagged, they are no longer going to let us be GP advocates for our patients. They have a gagging clause to prevent whistle-blowing in that contract. So, I could never criticise the HSE without losing my contract. We have seen very recently in this country the value of whistleblowers. I will never sign a contract that prevents me, or forbids me from speaking out if I see something wrong happening to my patient, I don’t trust the HSE – Im sorry!”

Watch back here