Media

Violent images evade censorship; cracking a pornography ring is documented on Chain Reactions... and Big Brother is hardly worth a mention. By Dermot Bolger

At least it can be said of the new head of RTÉ Radio One, Ana Leddy: she can take decisions. More decisions within a few months of her appointment than over several years previously. But good decisions?

In March of this year, the results of a study into institutional racism in Ireland commissioned by Amnesty International were released at a press conference, at which leading British human rights lawyer, Imran Khan, described Ireland as being in the "dark ages" with respect to racism. The study documented hard statistical evidence of institutional racism, such as the fact that "only one per cent of non-EU doctors became consultants, even though almost half of junior doctors were from outside Europe".

As Miriam Lord moves from the Irish Independent to the Irish Times, here's a sample of what Irish Times readers can expect and Indo readers will be missing

Never let it be said that your Meejit column doesn't try to get the facts for you so you can make up your own mind about stuff.  Harry Browne on the State broadcaster.

The build-up to this soccer World Cup has been laden with nostalgia pieces showcasing each of the great teams in their pomp. Both BBC and RTÉ have been offering us the chance to reminisce over Zidane's French side, Garrincha's Brazil and the highlights of the Technicolor 1970s.

Fianna Fáil TDs, Ministers of State and Government ministers are all running around like headless chickens in the wake of the two recent negative opinion polls, repeatedly chanting to themselves the mantra: "It's the economy, stupid. It's the economy, stupid."

A €20 million biopic of James Connolly, focusing on the events of Easter Week 1916, is due to start filming in spring 2007 with or without a promised investment from the Government.

There were always radios on in our house in Clonkeen Road, Blackrock, where I grew up, always a voice coming from somewhere in the house, or a patch of music, or a newscast echoing through the kitchen. I never thought all that much about it – the radio was as much a part of life as the thrum of traffic outside, or the milk bottles rattling outside the front door, or the early morning high-pitch of the milkman's cart as he went on his way through the suburbs of county Dublin.

MSometimes a running news story gives us insights into what it might be like to be ruled by the logic of the media. A good example was last week's coverage of the Supreme Court's judgement striking down the law making it an automatic crime to have sex with a girl under 15. Most of the media went into full outrage overdrive, although most, too, were confused as to what precisely they were most outraged about. There was much of the usual huffing and puffing about the rights of victims, and little attempt to understand the issue from the viewpoint of a properly calibrated concept of justice.