Opinion

Denis Bradley: When it comes to informed discussion, the BBC should listen and learn from RTE

Denis Bradley

Denis Bradley

Denis Bradley is a columnist for The Irish News and former vice-chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

BBC managers in Northern Ireland should be made listen to RTE for a full week before they are appointed or sacked from their jobs. Most especially they should be made listen to a week of programming that went on the airwaves during the referendum debate.

Years ago, I travelled the length and breadth of Ireland trying to discover the social and moral changes that were happening in Ireland. It was for a series of television programmes called Crossing the Border which aimed to introduce a northern audience to the changes that were happening in the south.

There were many interesting opinions and insights but the one that was most widely expressed was the influence of radio in initiating and facilitating the many debates that were then happening in the country. A surprising number of the contributors described the influence of radio in providing a forum for discussion. They described how those debates went into the kitchens and living rooms, on a daily basis, of a vast portion of the small population of the country. They also described how those discussions were wrestling with social and moral issues that hitherto would have been judged too difficult, too embarrassing, too scandalous or too dangerous for a mostly but not exclusively Catholic audience.

Listening into the recent abortion referendum reaffirmed the importance of radio in facilitating a complex and sophisticated debate. It also revealed the quality and sophistication of the programmes, the presenters and the people from all sides who took part. There was eloquence, articulateness, sophistication, knowledge and passion.

There were, of course, occasions when the arguments degenerated into bad manners and ignorance and attacks on the person rather than on the arguments. But generally, it was civilised and civil. And more importantly, it had nuance. It was understood that the decision to retain or remove the Eighth Amendment was a layered and complex argument and that those who were listening had an interest in being informed.

People who had knowledge and/or experience were given space and time to make their case. Experts from various backgrounds were invited to share their knowledge; women who had abortions or refused to have abortions were encouraged to tell their stories. There was balance and fairness and while aggression crept in at times, programmes were not set up to create a bear pit where one viewpoint was pitted against another to ensure a ‘lively’ programme.

But most importantly, the programmes didn’t rush to the phone to hear the views of the public. Numbers and emails were not given out with the encouragement to ‘phone us now’ or ‘it’s important we hear your views’, radio’s version of social media, the surest way of ensuring that the level of debate deteriorates and the quality of information is heavily stunted.

There is a place and a time for phone-ins and RTE has Joe Duffy to service that need. But the phone-in is no substitute for current affairs and serious debate. Yet it has become dominant here in the north and has replaced engagement with the layers of civic, political and religious society that normally carries the breadth and the depth of any country. There are strong indicators that producers count the number of callers attracted to a programme as the determinant of success or failure.

The comparison of northern and southern radio might be frivolous if it were not that we are about to enter an enormously important period of our history. Brexit, demographics, political, social, religious and cultural change are melding together to create a very choppy but fascinating seascape. Radio will not be the only but it will be the most important forum for the discussions and debates that will arise.

The BBC is the only public service broadcaster we have to provide ongoing and quality current affairs radio. What is being provided at the moment is not fit for purpose. There is a responsibility on those who are paid to lead and manage the BBC in Northern Ireland to provide a range of programming, a quality of production and a coterie of presenters who are capable of understanding and facilitating a complex, sensitive and passionate debate.

Replacing what has become overly comfortable in providing repetitive shouting matches for public amusement.

If that leadership doesn’t understand the inadequacy of the present output and doesn’t see the opportunity to provide a most important and constructive facility to this community, then shame on them and on us for allowing it to happen.