An Irish radio presenter has been suspended
from broadcasting after a row with a government body about Israel’s
occupation of the Gaza Strip.
Peter
Kearney, presenter of the International Politics show on Dublin’s Near
FM, had ridiculed Ireland’s Broadcasting Authority after a complaint
from the Israeli embassy was upheld.
The Sunday Times reports that Kearney has been suspended and told by station management that his actions ‘were not acceptable.’
The Sunday Times reports that Kearney has been suspended and told by station management that his actions ‘were not acceptable.’
Kearney
had interviewed a number of people last March about their experiences
in Gaza in the aftermath of Israeli military action in 2008 and 2009.
The paper reports that during his program, he described Gaza as an ‘open-air prison,’ endorsing a term used by one interviewee.
The
presenter also said on air that Israel did not want to share the waters
off the coast of Gaza with Palestinians because of their potential gas
and oil reserves.
Boaz Modai, Israel’s
ambassador to Ireland, then complained to the Broadcasting Authority
that the program was a ‘propaganda platform’ for Gaza Action Ireland as
there were no neutral guests or advocates of Israel’s position.
The
authority’s compliance committee ruled that the show was not ‘fair,
objective and impartial’ as current affairs programs are required to be.
After
Near FM broadcast the BAI’s ruling before an episode of International
Politics, Kearney discussed the ruling with Azizi, a comic character who
is the creation of Sami Moukaddem, a Lebanese musician.
On the program Azizi described the BAI ruling as ‘the garbage that we just smelt,’ He said it had ‘stank the whole office.’
The
paper says that Kearney then said that the ‘I’ in BAI stood for Ireland
and not Israel and said if he had endorsed the opinions of the
interviewees he wasn’t going too far wrong.
He said: “Shock, horror, I allowed their opinions to be expressed.”
Azizi added on air that, historically, people who tried to expose human rights abuses were vilified.
The comic said: “There is not enough toilet paper in this building to clean me of the vibe of what we just heard.”
The
report says that Azizi then mocked the BAI committee for upholding the
embassy’s complaint. He said: “Give us this shit, let us expose you.
They keep on exposing themselves.”
He also said that the complaint exposed the Israelis ‘as bullies of just about everything, small and big.’
Kearney
then took to the program’s Facebook page where he claimed the BAI had
supported an Israeli embassy attack on his show. He wrote: “This is an
attack on community volunteers.”
The station apologised to both the BAI and Israeli embassy after the Sunday Times investigated the program.
In
a statement, it said: “Near FM fully accepted the decision of the BAI
regarding the lack of balance in the International Politics program of
March 26. We stand over our apology as broadcast on November 6.
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Israel was never a Land Mass
It is not a Nation nor a Race
It is a Religion
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