{"id":398441,"date":"2026-04-14T19:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/398441\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:27:13","slug":"patrick-odonovan-not-seeking-media-coverage-review-of-fuel-protests-despite-suggestion-he-would-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/398441\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick O\u2019Donovan not seeking media coverage review of fuel protests despite suggestion he would \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Media Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> is not seeking a review of media coverage of the fuel protests<\/a> despite his previous suggestion<\/a> that he would.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan came in for criticism after he told a number of regional radio stations on Monday that he planned to raise his concerns about the fairness and balance of some media coverage with regulator Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n<\/a>, the Media Commission.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan\u2019s comments were described as \u201csinister and deeply disturbing\u201d by the National Union of Journalists<\/a> (NUJ).<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, O\u2019Donovan met the media regulator but the meeting did not result in a formal review of media coverage being ordered. <\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for O\u2019Donovan later said: \u201cThe Minister isn\u2019t seeking a review of media coverage, following his constructive engagement with Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The media regulator said it had, to date, \u201creceived a number of contacts from members of the public relating to broadcast coverage of recent fuel protests. In the first instance, we advise members of the public who wish to complain about broadcast content to complain to the broadcaster concerned.\u201d <\/p>\n

The regulator confirmed to O\u2019Donovan in the meeting that it \u201cwould follow up on statutory complaints regarding coverage of the fuel protests, as set out in legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan said on Monday he was concerned about \u201cbalance\u201d in some of the coverage, including some of the content posted online. <\/p>\n

\u201cIronically, it was being reported on RT\u00c9 News on one particular evening that there was nobody at Whitegate, and it was almost like a flare went up \u2013 you know: \u2018There\u2019s nobody here at Whitegate at the moment, come on down.\u2019 Of course, they started gathering and the rest is history,\u201d O\u2019Donovan told the Tipp Today programme on Tipp FM. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that I will be doing is examining it as well from a media and coverage point of view. Particularly social media<\/a>, and particularly from a balance point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added he didn\u2019t see \u201ctoo much\u201d coverage of people who agreed with the protest but didn\u2019t agree with the methods that it was using.<\/p>\n

The meeting between O\u2019Donovan and the media regulator on Tuesday came afterTan\u00e1iste Simon Harris said there was no need for \u201cany sort of formal review\u201d into RT\u00c9\u2019s coverage of fuel protests.<\/p>\n

Asked about the NUJ\u2019s criticism of O\u2019Donovan\u2019s remarks, Harris said he was supportive of freedom of the media and added: \u201cOf course, at the end of any difficult period, you can look back and say at a moment a national crisis \u2018how do we get information out there, are there learnings?\u2019 But I certainly don\u2019t think there\u2019s any need for any sort of formal review.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have, in this country, a free media, we have a robust media, and I think we have a fair media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed on whether he agreed with his Fine Gael colleague\u2019s suggestion that coverage had been skewed in favour of protesters, Harris said: \u201cI think the media, like everybody in this country, were doing their best to deal with a fast-evolving and very difficult situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NUJ this afternoon said it \u201cwelcomed the acceptance by Simon Harris, T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, that a review of media coverage of oil price protests across Ireland last week would not be appropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n

During a press conference at Leinster House Aont\u00fa leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn claimed O\u2019Donovan\u2019s comments were \u201can abuse of his position\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI believe that Patrick O\u2019Donovan has way overstepped the mark in an authoritarian fashion with regard to the comments that he has made.\u201d<\/p>\n

T\u00f3ib\u00edn said Aont\u00fa has written to the chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Media asking that O\u2019Donovan and the commission be brought before the committee to be asked questions on the matter. <\/p>\n

Committee chair Labour TD Alan Kelly has not immediately responded to a query from The Irish Times on whether he would invite the Minister and watchdog to a future meeting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Media Patrick O\u2019Donovan is not seeking a review of media coverage of the fuel protests despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3584,171749,42,73428,43,6232,17861,6085,70,58,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-398441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-coimisiun-na-mean","9":"tag-fuel-protests","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-national-union-of-journalists","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-patrick-o-donovan","14":"tag-peadar-toibin","15":"tag-rte","16":"tag-simon-harris","17":"tag-social-media","18":"tag-top-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topnews","21":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398441","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=398441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}