A spokesman for a prominent pro-life organisation in Ireland has slammed the country’s TV tax-funded state broadcaster for “bias”, which she described as being “petty and pathetic”.
Niamh Uí Bhriain, a campaigner for the Irish pro-life organisation The Life Institute, has slammed the country’s state-owned broadcaster for “bias” in its reporting on a recent protest against the country’s current abortion regime.
Thousands of people from across Ireland descended on the capital of Dublin for the annual March for Life on Saturday, during which participants also celebrated the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade, which many campaigners believe could be a significant turning point for the issue of abortion worldwide.
However, despite the march’s considerable size, Ireland’s state broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) gave the event very little coverage, especially compared to its recent coverage of much smaller pro-choice rallies held to protest the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
This disparity has prompted outrage from many in the pro-life camp, with Uí Bhriain lambasting the broadcaster — which is partly funded by Ireland’s TV licence tax — as “both petty and pathetic”.
“RTE is the public broadcaster, milking the taxpayer to the tune of €200 million a year so that they can continue to function as a wing of the pro-abortion campaign,” the campaigner told Breitbart Europe.
“They got more than a dozen press releases and follow-up calls about the Rally for Life, they were well aware it was taking place,” Uí Bhriain continued, before saying that the broadcaster by contrast “rushed to cover 200 pro-abortion extremists crying about Roe v Wade at the US Embassy in Dublin last week” despite ignoring “thousands marching for Life” on Saturday.
“Why should anyone pay their licence fee for this?” she went on to ask.
‘Ireland It’s Your Turn’ Thousands Celebrate Roe v. Wade Repeal at Annual Pro-Life Marchhttps://t.co/NemTo0Hv0k
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 5, 2022
While the television coverage of the event by the RTÉ may have been lacking, the event itself certainly was not, with thousands of people from Ireland and beyond battling spurts of torrential rain to hear speakers ranging from medical experts to elected members of the Irish parliament.
Abortion has also become a much greater talking point in other European states since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, though the energy has mainly been funnelled by pro-abortion actors into pushing for more anti-life policies.
For example, politicians in both France and Sweden have called for the right to an abortion to be added to their countries’ constitutions, while Germany has enacted legislation further liberalising its own abortion laws as the country’s leftist coalition government expresses the desire to continue to relax controls even further.
In the eyes of some, however, this sudden abortion push is quite cynical, with French populist firebrand Marine Le Pen accusing the mainstream of using the issue to distract from more pressing matters such as nationality and immigration.
“The reality is that [President Emmanuel Macron’s political party] En Marche is carrying out a political diversion because it does not want the focus to be on the main concerns of the French people today and their difficulties, which is purchasing power, which is security, which is immigration out of control,” Le Pen claimed last week, saying that the issue of abortion wasn’t even really being contested in France, despite her own Rassemblement National having considerable pro-life sympathies.
Instead, populists in France — according to Le Pen — would instead like to push for referendums on immigration and the ability for foreigners to become French citizens long before they push the abortion matter.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.