It is not at all surprising that the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) is introducing draconian rules to further control the media by banning broadcasters from expressing a personal opinion.
The (free) media is, after all, the only power within the state that has the power and will to investigate and expose political and business corruption.
All so-called State law enforcement authorities, including the police, are entirely under the control of the body politic. We only have to look around to see how damaging that is for Ireland and its people.
RTE welcomed the new restrictions, which again, is not surprising as the station is already a fully compliant government broadcaster.
The response by TV3, which is probably seen by politicians as the most dangerous (free) media outlet, best sums up this latest government attack on freedom of expression.
The State now seeks through its regulator to control content on channels it does not own, limiting news and current affairs programming to arid lists of facts.
It prevents non-State broadcasters from having a different view from the State and thereby restricts essential roles of media as watchdog, as court of public opinion and as provider of informed analysis.
At best this is unnecessary ‘regulatory creep’, more harshly it could be called state censorship.
If such a code was introduced in countries like Russia or China it would be regarded as an attack on free media.