Bishops attack RTE for tuning out religious TV

Sunday December 12th 2004
JEROME REILLY

THE CATHOLIC hierarchy has attacked RTE for sidelining religion in its schedules, with one bishop claiming it could cause "unquantifiable" damage to the way people perceive faith and worship.

In unusually outspoken comments, Bishop Joseph Duffy claimed serious debate on spiritual and moral questions is "under-developed and unstructured" in the programme output of the national broadcaster.

Bishop Duffy, chairman of the Bishop's Commission on Communications, said he had spoken with representatives from other faiths and they were as worried as he that religious programming has been relegated in RTE's priorities.

Referring to an RTE document called Commitment to Our Audience, the bishop said: "I understand that RTE's religious programming has been relegated to a miscellaneous category called 'Diversity' in RTE's programming categories.

"It was very disappointing to see that there was a total absence of any reference to religion. I immediately thought to myself: 'What does this say about the priority accorded by RTE to this important aspect of our lives?'

"If the role of RTE - as the national broadcaster - is to make every possible effort to reflect the fullness of the Irish experience, why then is religion not referred to?" he asked.

The criticism comes as a study of RTE's Christmas schedule shows just a tiny fraction of the State broadcaster's TV programmes have any spiritual dimension.

And in a separate intervention, Archbishop Sean Brady, said Catholic journalists, script-writers and producers have "right and duty" to ensure Catholic values and beliefs are treated with respect, accuracy and fairness.

The Primate of All-Ireland said Catholics in the media also have a duty and right to ensure that their religious values are reflected in radio and TV shows and in newspapers.

The comments by both senior churchmen appear to signal deep concerns among the hierarchy about the secularisation of RTE.

Examination of the Christmas programming for RTE 1 and RTE 2 for the three days of Christmas appears to support Bishop Duffy's view.

Out of more than 135 hours of programmes on both channels between Christmas Eve and St Stephen's Day, there are just five hours of programming with a significant spiritual content.

But that is mainly perfunctory broadcasts of Irish and international church services, including Midnight Mass from St Mary's Pro-Cathedral on Christmas Eve and a Eurovision Mass from Paris on Christmas Day.

The Pope's traditional message, Urbi Et Orbi, will be aired on Christmas morning and other services including Church of Ireland Diocesan youth service to be shown on St Stephen's Day.

However, there are no documentaries or discussion programmes with religious themes and none of more than 40 feature films has any intrinsic Christian flavour.

It's a similar amount of air-time to that devoted to just two of RTE's soap operas, Fair City and EastEnders during the Christian feast - and significantly less than the broadcast hours allocated for racing, rugby and soccer.

Dr Duffy is not, however, advocating that Catholic values be given the whip hand in RTE's schedules.

He said that other churches, both Christian and non-Christian, share his views in relation to the downgrading of religion and spirituality at Montrose. "There is consensus on this issue," Dr Duffy said.

He added that the situation cannot and should not be remedied by promoting one denomination at the expense of another, nor is it a criticism of the "general excellent quality of RTE programming".

Separate comments by Archbishop Sean Brady in relation to the responsibilities of Catholics working in the media are contained in the annual report of the Catholic Communications Office.

He said Catholics in the media have a right and a duty to ensure that the values and beliefs of the Catholic community are treated with the respect, accuracy and fairness, which a pluralist society, based on the values of justice and truth, rightly deserves.

? Irish Independent