{"id":327061,"date":"2026-03-03T18:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T18:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/327061\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T18:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T18:13:10","slug":"regulator-has-yet-to-formally-investigate-a-complaint-against-a-broadcaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/327061\/","title":{"rendered":"Regulator has yet to formally investigate a complaint against a broadcaster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>No formal investigation into complaints against broadcasters has been initiated by the country&#8217;s media regulator, and most cases have been dismissed or resolved through other engagement with the companies.<\/p>\n<p>Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n took over the handling of such complaints when it was established three years ago, after the wind-down of its predecessor the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI).<\/p>\n<p>When it receives a complaint, it is charged with deciding whether to dismiss it, refer it back to the relevant broadcaster or video-on-demand provider, or consider it for a formal investigation.<\/p>\n<p>This is different from the BAI process, where its compliance committee either upheld or rejected complaints, and these decisions were regularly published.<\/p>\n<p>Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n instead refers suspected contraventions of standards for investigation to an authorised person.<\/p>\n<p>    To date, no formal investigation has commenced<\/p>\n<p>            Coimisiun na Mean<\/p>\n<p>Asked how many formal investigations have been launched, it told the Press Association: \u201cTo date, no formal investigation has commenced under Part 8B of the Broadcasting Act 2009, as amended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Summarised details of 185 complaints are available on the regulator&#8217;s website.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 157 were dismissed, and three were referred back to the broadcaster.<\/p>\n<p>The remainder were referred to an authorised person to consider whether an investigation should take place. A decision has been made in 11 of those cases.<\/p>\n<p>In six, the authorised person decided it should be resolved through engagement with the broadcaster\/provider.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"not-prose no-underline\" data-action=\"click\" data-category=\"Read more article clicked\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/no-excuse-for-price-rises-at-petrol-pumps-says-micheal-martin-1870701.html\" data-value=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/no-excuse-for-price-rises-at-petrol-pumps-says-micheal-martin-1870701.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-83603227.jpg\" class=\"rounded-sm object-contain bg-transparent z-10 w-full h-full not-prose\" alt=\"No Excuse For Price Rises At Petrol Pumps, Says Miche\u00e1l Martin\" width=\"278\" height=\"156\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Ireland<\/p>\n<p>No excuse for price rises at petrol pumps, says Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the other five, the published decision does not make reference to engagement but instead says it was decided \u201cnot to direct an authorised office to commence an investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Asked to explain this wording, the regulator said: \u201cIn cases where an authorised person decided that there was reason to suspect a contravention but not to initiate an investigation or undertake any further engagement with the broadcaster, this may have been for a number of reasons, for example that it was a once-off breach; that the broadcaster had taken steps in the interim to avoid reoccurrence; or that the situation had otherwise changed such that the risk of repeated contravention was removed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Decisions are pending in several cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No formal investigation into complaints against broadcasters has been initiated by the country&#8217;s media regulator, and most cases&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-327061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}