KILKENNY EXCESS DEATHS, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland & LIES OF 'OMISSION'

'In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act...' (Orwell)

In my previous Substack, ‘KILKENNY SUDDEN DEATHS, KCLR AND THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE’, I detailed my efforts to get KCLR (Kilkenny Carlow Local Radio) to broadcast verifiable data I had researched showing that overall deaths in Kilkenny in 2022 were up 30% compared to 2019 and sudden deaths up 120%.

A statement on KCLR’s website states:

‘KCLR96fm is the station licensed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to provide a full local radio service to the people of Carlow and Kilkenny and we aim to deliver the best possible service to our listeners.’

Despite numerous emails, phone calls etc they refused to engage with the story in any way and in an email in December, the Station Editor informed me of their decision to not proceed with the story.

In my opinion, as a licensed station they had a public service obligation to provide their listeners with this life and death information, to demand answers and in this way protect their listeners from harm.

I decided to take the matter further by lodging a complaint with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) as to KCLR’s lack of action.

Thus began a descent into Orwellian lies and obfuscation that beggar’s belief.

“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.” (Orwell)

For our purposes, the BAI, among other statutory duties, issue licences to the local and independent radio sector in Ireland.

 This rather grandiose statement appears on their website as to one of their aims:

‘The BAI will give effect to the principles set out in its Compliance and Enforcement policy through measures that are fair and proportionate, that reflect audience needs and are adequate for the purposes of statutory reporting and holding broadcasters to account.’

By reading the above I felt I was only a lodged complaint away from KCLR getting their knuckles rapped and my data being broadcast to the benefit of the people of Kilkenny and Ireland, if the story grew legs.

The BAI complaint process was never going to be so reasonable and easy as writing a letter describing the problem, being contacted and then the BAI making their judgement call.

No, that would be much too user-friendly and dare I say it counter-productive as far as the BAI were concerned.

The online complaints process on the BAI website funnels you through a maze of pre-set questions that must be answered so that they can establish what broadcaster, program and subject you are complaining about.

It quickly became clear that a complaint about something not being broadcast hadn’t crossed their minds when setting this up so I improvised when submitting my complaint on 26/12/22 as you can see below.

I detailed the whole story and said the following:

‘I am asking for an immediate investigation of this matter to establish if this is a singular act of journalistic incompetence and dereliction of duty by KCLR or were they following instructions from others un-named’.

I also set out an explanation for my complaint not fitting the online process which would ensure a response and not dismissal on a technicality:

‘This complaint is about a serious act of omission which your online process is not designed to deal with. Consequently, I have compromised in answering certain questions… I am doing so in order to have my complaint lodged and acknowledged.’

‘It's frightful that people who are so ignorant should have so much influence.’ (Orwell)

The BAI issued a prompt detailed response on 4/1/23 full of guff and platitudes through its Broadcasting Complaints Officer, James Gunning.

This is the important bit:

‘From reading your complaint, I note you are not satisfied with how KCLR is choosing what it broadcasts, and you have commented on the omission of material that you think should have been included. In this instance, please note that the broadcaster retains the editorial right to choose what they broadcast, providing they adhere to the BAI’s Codes and Rules. The BAI are only permitted to consider complaint referrals that are specifically about broadcast content and in this case, your complaint is based on omission. We have therefore invalidated this complaint.’

My complaint was ‘invalidated’ because it was based on omission.

You can only complain about something that has been broadcast, and the fact that they won’t broadcast it means you have nothing to complain about.

An Orwellian Catch 22 if ever there was one.

I, for one, felt safer in my bed knowing that Mr. Gunning was manning the purity of the broadcasting barricades on behalf of the Irish nation.

“It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.’ (Orwell)

I replied to Mr. Gunning on 5/1/23 saying the following:

‘People are dying at excessive rates all over the country that pays your wages, and you hide behind the 'them's the rules' answer.

They might be the rules Mr. Gunning and if you can morally live with yourself go ahead but we both know now that you are an accomplice to what is happening by ignoring this complaint.

You have my details if you want to point me in the right direction to try and get somewhere with this Catch 22, that no one is accountable for not broadcasting about this life and death matter because no one will broadcast about it’.

At this stage he opted out, having earned his crust and gold-plated pension, and I was passed on to, then summarily dismissed by a Ms. Lucy Cuddihy who informed me:

 ‘I regret that we cannot be of assistance with this matter for you’.

Thirteen words dripping with sincerity.

“ The people will believe what the media tells them they believe.’ (Orwell)

My natural response when dealing with ‘Official Ireland’ is to ‘poke the bear’ as the apparatchiks have no choice but to respond.

 I replied to Ms. Cuddihy explaining the stupidity of Mr. Gunning’s response as follows:

‘KCLR could report on the local news for Timbuckto for 6 months of the year and that if anyone complained that they were not meeting their public service obligation, Mr. Gunning as Broadcasting Complaints Officer would 'invalidate the complaint' because it's an act of omission and you can only complain about what they broadcast. ie Timbuckto local news.

.. if that's true then what is the point of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland if it can't ensure that radio stations licenced by the state meet the needs and expectations of the Irish people.

Please forward this complaint to Mr. Gunning's superior because it is now also a complaint about BAI meeting their responsibilities and obligations to the Irish people.’

Ms. Cuddihy played this with a straight bat and dismissed me again saying:

‘Each broadcaster has the editorial freedom to make choices in relation….’ yada, yada yada

In doing so, she made the mistake of attaching a copy of a BAI guide which gave me the names of the various head commissars.

I demanded that she forward the complaints to one of two named individuals and the lucky Commissar out of the hat was a Mr. Ciaran Kissane, a BAI lifer with the rather grand title: ‘Chairperson of Executive Complaints Forum.’

I did this in the hope that one of the BAI senior management would sign off on Mr. Gunning’s interpretation of BAI policy.

Mr. Kissane replied on 13/1/23 and in doing so he acknowledged reviewing all correspondence and stood over the basis for invalidating the complaint and finished with:

‘Unfortunately, your complaint as submitted remains invalid, as your complaint does not relate to material that was broadcast.’

Mr. Kissane’s response can be described in a short sentence using the terms ‘line’, ‘sinker’ and ‘hook’.

‘For tis sport to have the engineer hoist upon his own petard’. (Hamlet)

That could have been the end of the matter only for a person who I had been keeping up to date with the BAI correspondence, delivered into my lap three pages of a detailed filleting of Mr. Kissane’s BAI stewardship by the blade of his own rules, standards and obligations.

He then said it was mine to use in any response to Mr. Kissane.

I felt as if Bob Dylan had handed me the lyrics to Mr. Tambourine Man and said ‘here, see can you do something with this.’

I sculpted a personalised reply that represented my thoughts wrapped around my friend’s technical and detailed analysis of Mr. Kissane’s position and BAI policy.

I have published this as a separate Substack today titled ‘Letter to BAI Chief’

It is long and technical but if I do say so myself it is well worth a read for it’s ritual gutting of ‘Official Ireland’ as represented by the BAI and Mr. Kissane.

Evisceration burns.

Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.’ (Orwell)

A quick summation of the letter is that it explains how the BAI have the authority to insist that radio stations broadcast on this life and death matter.

This authority comes from their own Codes, the Irish Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and an obligation that ‘broadcasters shall comply with the spirit as well as the letter of the code.’

The letter leads the reader through a detailed explanation of the insanity of the policy interpretation on ‘omission’ adopted by the BAI and leaves all in no doubt that by doing so they are abdicating their responsibility to the Irish nation that pays their wages.

“It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words’. (Orwell)

We have reached the stage where an Irish radio station doesn’t feel the need to publish excess deaths data and the State body who issues their licence says they don’t have to and that there is nothing they can do about it.

It’s all very convenient that this disgraceful situation as evidenced by all ‘independent’ radio stations and the BAI, supports the governments narrative on the ‘Covid Pandemic’ since March 2020.

If you go to KCLR’s website you will see a designated ‘Covid’ section which has reported without question hundreds of Government PR releases over the last three years.

These extol the virtues of Government policy on lockdowns, masks, Covid 19 vaccines, boosters and don’t forget the life-saving €9 meal idea.

The advertising base of all independent radio stations was destroyed with the lockdowns and hasn’t recovered.

In April 20, sensing an opportunity, the Government through the BAI stepped in with the ‘Sound & Vision Scheme’ which would give up to €95,000 in funding dependent as follows:

‘The funding is available to cover costs “directly related” to the aim of enhancing public awareness and understanding of the health emergency.. to help them raise "public awareness and understanding of Covid-19" (Irish Times 8/4/20)

“We have moved quickly to establish budget and capacity to administer this funding scheme to help to sustain the commercial radio sector, and enable it to continue its important work in providing public health information and growing awareness of Covid-19,’ (Michael O’Keeffe, BAI Chief 8/4/20)

So, the Government who controls the BAI, hands them a slush fund to dole out to financially crippled radio stations to cover costs ‘directly related to enhancing public awareness and understanding of the health emergency’.

Remember, at this stage we were told it was 2 weeks to flatten the curve.

€95,000 not bad for a bit of ‘curve flattening’ broadcasting.

This was bound to encourage critical examination of Government policy and the consequences of it, not!

They are using your licence fee to maintain ‘independent’ radio stations that will struggle financially without the Sound & Vision subsidy, the receipt of which is dependent on following the Government narrative.

We are now up Round 49 of the Sound & Vision Scheme with the application process due to open on 20/4/23.

The Irish taxpayer is paying for a system that encourages lying by ‘omission’.

How does it feel?