RTÉ does not seek to balance perspectives on topics such as climate change, committee hears

Mr Williams, RTÉ director general Dee Forbes, and a number of officials from RTÉ and Met Eireann appeared before the committee to explore issues on climate change that were raised by the Citizens’ Assembly.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan asked whether RTÉ pitches scientists against climate change deniers on its programming, and Fine Gael TD Martin Heydon raised the fact that the BBC had told producers not to invite deniers on air to balance debates.

Mr Williams said the British broadcaster’s actions were mitigation measures implemented after its coverage of climate change was found to be in breach of broadcasting guidelines - a charge that has not been levelled at RTÉ by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

“Section 39.1 of the Broadcasting Act requires RTÉ to be fair and impartial across a whole range of subject areas, and the reporting of climate change is no different to the reporting of homelessness, or Brexit or health, or criminal justice,” Mr Williams said.

We’re not obliged to balance and we don’t balance different perspectives. We are obliged to be fair and impartial and we strive to do that across all of the different subject areas that we cover.

“We don’t seek to balance climate change deniers and scientists, what we aim to do is to be fair and impartial and we would be failing in our responsibility if we didn’t reflect that 97% of scientists agree that climate change is man-made,” he said.

In a wide-ranging discussion on weather alerts, including Met Eireann’s role in communicating climate change to the public, head of forecasting Evelyn Cusack revealed the organisation is concerned about ‘clickbait’ weather warnings.

“Unfortunately there are spurious warnings being issued and unfortunately Met Eireann has no control over that.

We are very worried about it, we’re studying it, and I personally have contacted various agencies who are issuing these warnings, totally without any meteorological background and we are very, very concerned about that.

Ms Forbes told the committee that RTÉ is making genuine efforts to engage with climate change across its outputs, but warned that there is less for the media to report on “if there is little by way of action on climate change in terms of legislative change, policy initiatives, parliamentary debate and business innovation”.

Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley told Ms Forbes that the challenge of climate change “has to be part of life” and can be communicated through different programming, including Fair City which he said has successfully handled societal issues such as migration and violence against women.

“I think there’s potential in your soap programme, I’m conscious that I’m not a regular viewer but sometimes I’m subjected to it at home on occasion if I happen to be there at a particular time,” Mr Dooley said.

“It blends it in without setting it apart so it implicates it into everyday life. I think there’s opportunities there, because if we are to be successful we have to make this mainstream,” he said.