The late journalism great Tommie Gorman described the news and current affairs output on local radio as “gold standard”, just days before his passing, describing how impressed he had been by the election coverage in the independent radio sector.
The Future of Media Commission in its report recognised the importance of independent local radio and its continued ability to provide its vital Public Service Content. The design of the schemes which have been announced unfortunately incorporates major barriers through the principle of additionality and platform-neutrality which mean they are deficient in terms of assisting our sector with its core news and current affairs. The design is especially problematic for radio, but also has challenges for print media in terms of additionality.
Our Independent Broadcasters of Ireland Pre-Budget and Policy submission 2024 launched today seeks to provide a framework for providing interim funding until long term support schemes can be finalised. It has been developed over the last three two months by the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland and has been provided to the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Media and the Cabinet. It is comprehensive, detailed and costed, and contains very modest and reasonable proposals which are designed to address the challenge specifically facing core news and current affairs in our sector. It is designed to address this one area within stations – the risk of erosion of those services due to cost increases and stretched funding and resourcing. These factors impact news and current affairs in our stations, specifically in the areas of retention and recruitment in newsrooms, and that underlines our proposals.
While independent radio has maintained its very solid national advertising share and continues to attract a combined 70% of listeners nationwide, there is a need for fair and equitable support for core news and current affairs resourcing and output. This funding would be a very small fraction of that being proposed for RTE.
The Government and Oireachtas have a huge opportunity to provide real and accessible financial support which could move News and Current Affairs in our sector from the current position to a bright future. We are eager to continue to provide ideas and feedback on policy, but we cannot wait any longer for reasonable funding.
Our proposals are simple and reasonable and would address the crisis for the next year. They just rebalance current funding.
