Complaint about Katie Hopkins interview among 18 rejected by Broadcasting Authority of Ireland

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) has today rejected complaints relating to Newstalk 106-108FM, Today FM and RTÉ One TV.

Complaint about Katie Hopkins interview among 18 rejected by Broadcasting Authority of Ireland

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) has today rejected complaints relating to Newstalk 106-108FM, Today FM and RTÉ One TV.

At meetings held in January and March 2017, the Compliance Committee of the BAI considered seven complaints.

The Executive Complaints Forum considered and rejected 12 complaints.

One complaint concerned an appearance by controversial broadcaster Katie Hopkins on Today FM show The Last Word.

The complainant stated that, as a migrant in Ireland, she found the language used by Ms Hopkins during the discussion to be coarse and offensive. She said that the degree of harm in the inclusion of such speech, given the time of broadcast, should have been considered by the broadcaster.

The committee found that the views of Ms Hopkins as articulated during the interview were challenged via the questions of the presenter and comments by Hugh Linehan, the other guest on the programme.

The complaint was rejected, however the BAI said that some audience members would have benefited from prior notice of the contents of an article by Ms Hopkins mentioned during broadcast, and the station was asked to “give due consideration to this should it return to a topic such as this in the future”.

Another complaint was made in relation to an interview on Newstalk's The Pat Kenny Show on December 13, 2016.

Pat Kenny
Pat Kenny

The complainant believed that the interview, which included descriptions of ‘chemsex’ and the effects on gay men, were inappropriate for broadcast at 11am in the morning.

The broadcaster states that two extensive warnings were broadcast in advance of the interview, and that the piece was “well-handled with a mature approach and at no point did the discussion become gratuitous”.

The Executive Complaints Forum found that the interview was "factual and informative" and was "handled with due care by the presenter given the content".

The Forum stated that, on balance, the broadcaster had provided sufficient information for most audience members to make a decision as to whether to listen, and the complaint was rejected.

However, the ruling also stated: “Notwithstanding this, some audience members may have been offended by the content and the broadcaster is advised to consider whether additional audience information should be provided in future.”

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