RTG Freedom of Information Of?ce Oi?g Sacrala Faisn?ise Mr. Ken Foxe email: ken@righttoknow.ie 11th September 2018 Re: Freedom of Information (FOI) request RTE reference: FOI 2018 153 Dear Ken, I am contacting you in relation to your recent FOI request where you sought the following: ?copies of all records created relating to a recent letter sent by TV3 to RTE complaining about the absence of TV3 stars from RTE response Thanks for the clarification earlier. I can confirm that RTE does hold a record which relates to your request. It is one email that was sent from the office of the Director General to three senior managers in the organisation. I am releasing that email to you which also contains the original letter sent from TV3. Following the FOI request from the Sunday Independent I checked with the Director General and the recipients to see if they created any records and was advised they did not. There was no other internal communication nor was any received from TV3. I have redacted phone numbers as I view them as Personal Information. Section 37(1) of the Act states that the release of records which would disclose personal information ?shall be refused'. Section 2(a) of the Act defines this as information which includes (according to Section information relating to the employment or employment history of the individual. Having reached that view I must now consider Section 37(5) which is a ?public interest clause?. I don?t believe that Section 37(5)(b) is relevant so I am just considering There is always a strong argument to be made for public bodies including RTE to be open and transparent at all times. On the other hand, an individual?s right to privacy is enshrined in the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and acknowledged in the long title to the FOI Act. It has also been established in many decisions of the Information Commissioner that a requester?s private interest in certain records cannot be construed as reaching the threshold for satisfying the ?public interest? clause in order to release personal information. Having considered the matter I do not believe the public interest would best be served by releasing what is personal information to the individuals in your FOI. Attached is the email and letter. Regards, as? Ami-q Richard Dowling FOI Decision Maker, RTE Raidio Tellifis Eireann RTE Baile Atha Cliath 4, Eire. Dublin 4, Ireland. T: +3581 208 2168 E: foi@rte.ie W: 9/11/2018 Fw: Scan copy Pal Kiely, TV3 Letter Fw: Scan copy Pat Kiely, TV3 Letter O'Keeffe, Caroline on behalf of Forbes, Dee Reply all lv Fri 03/08/201812:09 To; Dowl_i-n_g, Richard REply all V Delete Junklv FOI 145 letters indo You replied on 20/08/2018 16:54. SKM 0818042414120.pdf 123 KB Show all 1 attachments (123 KB) Download Save to OneDrive - RTE From: Forbes, Dee Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2018 08:07 To: Williams, .lon; Adrian; Jennings, Jim Subject: Fwd: Scan copy Pat Kiely, TV3 Letter Dee DEE FORBES Director General Dublin 4 T: -E: dee.forbes@rte.ie I Begin forwarded message: From: "O'Keeffe, Caroline" Date: 24 April 2018 at 15:34:28 IST To: ?Forbes, Dee" Subject: Scan copy Pat Kiely, TV3 Letter Dee, attached scan copy of TV3 letter received today by post. Best, Caroline. 112 9/11/2018 Fw: Scan copy Pat Kiely, TV3 Letter LJCIHICH l\ 51 LJUUHII 4: From: Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2018 3:12 PM To: O'Keeffe, Caroline Subject: Message from KM 08 212 i- .. ?Lwn'i 19?? April 2018 Ms. Dee Forbes Director General Raidio Teilifis Eireann Dublin 4 Dear Dee, Now that we are well into 2018 and following a particularly busy ?rst quarter for TV3, I am writing to follow up on previous conversations we have had on television industry collaboration and promotion. I think we made a good start when we shared a stage for the first time at the Fis Galway TV Summit last October and made positive statements of intent to engage in areas of shared interest. However feel I need to bring a number of areas of concern to your attention that I believe are undermining our combined efforts to support the television industry in lreland. Over the last number of months, I have noted a growing level of bias across RTE services with an increasing number of examples of exclusion, editorial selectivity and what seems to be a deliberate strategy to keep any references to TV3 to an absolute minimum, if at all. Whilst there are a small number of examples of acknowledgement of TV3's growing contribution to the national airwaves, unfortunately this has been completely out-weighed by what appears to be a de facto censorship of TV3, particularly across your television services. You may not be aware of this behaviour but a pattern has clearly been established to exclude TV3 talent from RTE shows and what looks like a complete ban on any reference to TV3 content or people. I recognise that, as competitors, RTE reserves the right to choose its own guests and programmes it wishes promote, but surely it is the remit of the national public service broadcaster to reflect a broader interest of society and television viewers in lreland. With TV3 Group now representing close to 40% of local viewership, is it not time for RTE to adopt a more inclusive policy? In the UK there are good examples of how public service and commercial channels co-exist and reflect each other?s contribution to the television industry with BBC, ITV and Channel 4 talent regularly appearing on competing channel shows eg Graham Norton regularly features ITV shows and talent with lTV?s Jonathan Ross similarly featuring BBC guests. TV3 Television Network Limited, Westgate Business Park, Baiiymomt, Dublin 24, Ireland Tel: +353 1 419 3333 Fax: +353 1 419 3302 Registereo In lzela'id No 272512 Registered Of?ce. Building P2. Easlpom: Business Park, C?cnlal'l. Duinin 3 Directors Pa: Kely Tony Hanwey. Ewen Dunbar However, it would seem that flagship show, the Late tote Show, has decided to ignore popular TVS shows and talent. Despite TV3 being the home of some of the biggest TV events in the first quarter of 2018, the Late Late Show made no reference to either 6 Nations coverage or panel (despite the RTE Six Nations panel featuring almost annually prior to this year) or Ireland?s Got Talent. In the case of the latter, I understand that all four high profile judges on this show were offered as guests to the Late Late Show but were declined. All of this looks like a very specific editorial stance when you consider similar RTE shows feature very regularly on the Late Late Show. As a commercial operator TV3 understands the competitive spirit which we both engage in however the lack of coverage of TV3's contribution to the Irish broadcasting sector surely undermines your public service obligations. In contrast, as part of W3?s own public service remit, we produce a significant amount of local content and regularly feature RTE talent on shows like Ireland AM, Xpos? and the 6 O?Clock Show. In the ?rst quarter alone we estimate that over thirty guests from RTE shows have appeared on during this period we don?t believe any TV3 talent appeared on a RTE TV show. I have been hearing from staff and viewers about many more examples of what looks like a consistent policy. Many of these examples include a complete lack of TVS reference across your radio services also which, again, is in complete contrast to a high level of cross- promotion of RTE TV content across all your radio services- While TVS and RTE compete for TV viewership, I don't believe it is in the interest of either party to ignore our collective efforts to invest in the sector and promote Ireland?s great creative and production talent. On the contrary, our healthy competition should act as a catalyst for growth and continued investment in the broadcasting industry in Ireland. Whilst not in receipt of direct public funding, TV3 employs over 300 staff with many hundreds more engaged in independent productions on our behalf. For their creative work not to be showcased or deliberately excluded from RTE programmes is damaging to the TV3 business and the broader production industry in Ireland. I look forward to following up on our previous agreement to seek out areas of collaboration and promotion whilst at the same time welcoming the opportunity to discuss the concerns above. As we both face growing international and technological competition, I hope this will be a helpful pre?cursor to what should be a much more productive and co-operative relationship for the good of Irish viewers and the Irish broadcasting. I will contact your office in the coming days and hopefully we can organize a meeting soon. Best regards .. . . (jfy? (L. f? I Pat Ki hex MANAGING DIRECTOR TV3 Television Network Limited, Westgate Business Park, Ballymount, Dublin 24, lreiand Tel: +353 1 419 3333 Fax: +353 1 419 3302 Regislered Ireiarid No 272612. Regzslered Of?ce. Building P2, Easipoint Business Paris. Cloritari. Dublin 3 Directors Torn Mock'idge (UK), Pal Kie-Iy. Tony Hanway Ewan Dunbar