EU ads 'show the benefits of EU membership', but are not political

Campaigners object to ads for European Union's 'Europe Direct' information service. By Colin Murphy

T he European Commission has said a series of advertisements for EU services currently running on local radio is not political, but "factual". Political advertising on radio is banned under the 1988 Radio and Television Act.

European Commissioner Charlie McCreevey said the ads were intended to "show the benefits of EU membership" when he launched the ad campaign in Dublin last February.

Patricia McKenna, former Green Party MEP, and Anthony Coughlan, secretary of National Platform, an organisation involved in campaigning against the European Constitution, said they intend to make a complaint about the ads to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland.

Amongst other statements, the ads say: "the EU is progressively opening its markets to help... developing nations combat poverty", "the European Union has an enormously successful student exchange programme, called 'Erasmus'" and "European Union legislation has created more competitive markets and forced down the prices of air-fares and telephone calls".

The European Commission has a €360,000 contract with Independent Radio Sales, which sells advertising on behalf of local stations across the country, for the 20-week series of ads. Each ad makes a statement about the EU and follows it with information about the "Europe Direct" information service.

A spokesperson for the European Commission office in Dublin, which placed the ads, said they did not seek legal advice on whether the ads violated the prohibition on political advertising. "As the messages are factual, it was not considered necessary to seek such advice", the spokesperson said.

John O'Connor, chief executive of Independent Radio Sales, said the series was "a public information awareness campaign, like many we run for the Irish government". He said he had sought legal advice from the company's solicitors, and as a result was "satisfied that the campaign doesn't in any way infringe part of the ban".

Anthony Coughlan said he was concerned that the ads could have the "political end of influencing public attitudes towards the EU" in a context where there could yet be a referendum here on the European Constitution.

The European Commission spokesperson said the objective of the ad campaign was "to highlight the different sources of information that are available on the European Union", specifically, the Europe Direct centres, the Europe Direct freephone number, and the website of the Commission's representation in Ireland, www.euireland.ie. The spokesperson said the Commission had not sought to place the ads with RTÉ or other broadcast media.

Speaking at the launch of the advertising campaign in February, European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, said: "Following the rejection of the Nice Treaty in 2001, Ireland knows only two well the importance of communicating Europe. After the French and Dutch rejections of the Constitution, all of Europe knows it now. This campaign will help not only inform people of the different information sources available but will also show the benefits of EU membership, and provide very practical advice on how to avail of European laws to protect their rights".

In January this year, RTÉ pulled a series of advertisements for an event being run by two human rights organisations, Afri and Frontline. The ads were for a meeting as part of the Feile Bhride in Kildare, and said there would be "eyewitness accounts from the Niger Delta and Rossport, Darfur, Iraq and Shannon Airport".

Section 10.3 of the 1988 Radio and Television Act states: "No advertisement shall be broadcast which is directed towards any religious or political end or which has any relation to an industrial dispute".

The following is the script for one of the advertisements, as provided by the European Commission office in Dublin:

Male voice over: (Strong, informative, friendly-tone of voice)

"Did you know…That the European Union has an enormously successful student exchange programme, called 'Erasmus'? So far, through this programme, over 20,000 Irish students have studied at universities in other member states.

"To find out more about the European Union, log onto euireland.ie or freefone 00800 6 7 8 9 10 11. Europe Direct Information. It's all about EU."