Category: Uncategorized

Binding online safety rules will apply to Irish-based video-sharing platforms when finalised

Coimisiún na Meán has today (27.05.2024) published an updated draft Online Safety Code in response to its public consultation. The final Code will set binding rules applying to video-sharing platforms who have their EU headquarters in Ireland. The Code is being submitted to the European Commission today (27.05.2024) under the Technical Regulations Information System (TRIS) Directive process, which involves a standstill period of 3-4 months. Once this process is complete, Coimisiún na Meán will finalise and apply the Code to video-sharing platforms with their EU Headquarters in Ireland.

The final Code will be part of Coimisiún na Meán’s overall Online Safety Framework. This Framework makes digital services accountable for how they protect people, especially children, from harm online. The updated Code, combined with the other parts of the Online Safety Framework, will deliver on the objectives of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act, leading to safer online experiences for people across Ireland.

The Code introduces obligations on video-sharing platforms to protect their users from  harmful content, including:

• Prohibiting the uploading or sharing of harmful content on their services including cyberbullying, promoting self-harm or suicide and promoting eating or feeding disorders as well as incitement to hatred or violence, terrorism, child sex abuse material, racism and xenophobia.
• Using age assurance to prevent children from encountering pornography or gratuitous violence online and having age verification measures in place as appropriate.
• Providing parental controls for content which may impair the physical, mental, or moral development of children under 16.

The overall Online Safety Framework gives Coimisiún na Meán the tools to address the root causes of harm online, including the availability of illegal content, the harmful impacts of recommender systems, and inadequate protections for children on social media services.

The Online Safety Commissioner, Niamh Hodnett, said: “It is essential to create a safer online world for all of us, especially for our children. This updated Code is an important step forward to hold platforms to account for keeping people safe online. It takes account of responses to our public consultation and our consultation with our Youth Advisory Committee. We are now notifying the Code to the European Commission and once that process is complete we will apply it later this year.”

Executive Chairperson of Coimisiún na Meán, Jeremy Godfrey said: “Alongside our powers under the EU Digital Services Act and Terrorist Content Online Regulation, the Online Safety Code will give us a strong suite of tools to improve people’s lives online. We will ensure that we use our full range of powers to improve people’s online experiences.”  

Additional supporting documents

• More information on the draft Online Safety Code can be found here.
• Response to Consultation
• Report on consultation with Youth Advisory Committee
• Summary of Submission: Wagner-Hatfield Report
• Schedule of Submissions
• Submissions received

Coimisiún na Meán would like to congratulate all the nominees and winners of the IFTA Awards 2024, which the Irish Film and Television Academy hosted on Saturday. 

Several projects, funded by the Coimisiún na Meán Sound & Vision Broadcasting Funding Scheme, received nominations and won awards. Sound & Vision is a funding scheme for television and radio programmes, funded through the television licence fee. 

That They May Face The Rising Sun, adapted from John McGahern’s novel about life in rural Ireland, won the top award for Best Film. Directed by Pat Collins, the film will be released in Irish cinemas next Friday and received funding from Round 38 of the Scheme.  

The George Morrison Feature Documentary Award went to The Days of Trees from director Alan Gilsenan and producer Tomás Hardiman, funded under Round 31 of the Scheme.  

Actress Siobhán Cullen was announced as the 2024 Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland Rising Star for her roles in Obituary and The Dry, both funded by Sound & Vision. 

The IFTA Awards are supported by Coimisiún na Meán through its Sponsorship Scheme. 

Under Article 22 of the Digital Services Act, Coimisiún na Meán may award the status of Trusted Flagger. Trusted Flaggers will work within designated areas of expertise to identify illegal content. Where a Trusted Flagger identifies illegal content, they may submit a notice to the relevant online platform. Online platforms will be legally obliged to give their notices priority, and to process and decide on these reports without undue delay.

Bodies such as non-governmental organisations, industry federations and trade associations, members of established fact-checkers networks, trade unions, non-regulatory public entities and private or semi-public bodies may become Trusted Flaggers.

To become a Trusted Flagger, an applicant body must:

• have expertise and competence for the purposes of detecting, identifying and notifying illegal content;
• be independent from any provider of online platforms;    
• carry out its activities for the purposes of submitting notices diligently, accurately and objectively.

Coimisiún na Meán can now award Trusted Flagger status to organisations which meet the above conditions and is encouraging qualified entities to consider applying. We have recently published guidance and an application form on our website and any interested organisations are encouraged to read this guidance and to contact trustedflaggerapplications@cnam.ie with any questions that they might have.

• Article 22 Trusted Flaggers: Application Form and Guidance  

Coimisiún na Meán has today (14.02.24) published its Guidelines in Respect of Broadcast Coverage of Referendums.  The guidelines are published in advance of the referendums on the 39^th and 40^th Amendments of the Constitution, scheduled to take place on 8^th March next. The Guidelines come into immediate effect and apply to coverage of the referendums until the closing of polling stations on 8^th March 2024.  

The Guidelines have been developed further to the provisions of the Code of Fairness, Objectivity and Impartiality in News and Current Affairs and provide direction and advice to broadcasters as to how fairness, objectivity and impartiality can be achieved in their coverage of referendum campaigns.

Among the matters covered in the Guidelines are the various ways in which fairness, objectivity and impartiality can be achieved, the management of conflicts of interest, the prohibition on political advertising, and coverage of opinion polls. Other matters addressed include on-air contributions via social media, a prohibition on presenters encouraging listeners or viewers to vote in support of or against any particular outcome in the referendums, and the obligation to carry announcements made on behalf of An Coimisiún Toghcháin (the Electoral Commission).

The Guidelines also encourage broadcasters to include a range of voices and opinions in their coverage, including a mix of views representing social, gender and cultural diversity. As with previous guidelines, a moratorium on coverage will come into effect from 2pm on the day prior to voting and will end following the closure of polling stations on the day of the ballot.

Speaking about the publication of the Guidelines, Broadcasting Commissioner, Celene Craig said: “During the course of the referendum campaigns and right up to the closing of the polls on March 8th, broadcasters must ensure that coverage of the referendums is fair and equitable to all interests. The Guidelines published today include a strong emphasis on how fairness, objectivity and impartiality can be achieved, and how this is broader than a consideration of airtime for campaign groups.

“Coimisiún na Meán is keen to emphasise that this does not include a requirement for artificial balance. The Guidelines also emphasise that audiences may be better served by an approach to coverage that is not purely adversarial, and which places an emphasis on the issues in a referendum.”

• The Guidelines in Respect of Coverage of Referendums are available for download here .
• The Code of Fairness, Objectivity and Impartiality is available to download here.

The latest JNLR/Ipsos MRBI report into radio listening is published today (08.02.24).

On behalf of the JNLR Committee, a media release and summary information tables are available to download here.

ENDS

Please note:

Media queries regarding individual programme or station performance should be directed to IPSOS MRBI or the relevant broadcaster.

Safer Internet Day takes place every February to raise awareness of a safer and better internet for all, and especially for children and young people. 

February 6^th 2024 is the 21^st anniversary of Safer Internet Day, and the first Safer Internet Day since the establishment of Coimisiún na Meán and the appointment of Ireland’s first Online Safety Commissioner, Niamh Hodnett. This year, Coimisiún na Meán is supporting Webwise’s campaign on the theme of ‘Tech in our world’, exploring young people’s views on the role of technology in their lives, recent changes and tech developments and changes young people want to see. 

Online Safety Commissioner Niamh Hodnett said:  

“I am delighted to support this year’s Safer Internet Day, which is a great opportunity to reflect on the work being done around the world to create a safer online world, particularly for children. We at Coimisiún na Meán are ready to play our part through the implementation of our Online Safety Framework, as part of the Global Online Safety Regulators Network and with our counterparts in other Member States of the EU through the European Digital Services Board and the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media. Since I started my role in March last year, I have heard from a wide range of groups representing children and young people, including our own Youth Advisory Committee, and we look forward to making a positive impact for them.” 

Coimisiún na Meán is putting its Online Safety Framework into action in 2024. This will bring an end to the era of self-regulation and make online platforms accountable for how they keep their users, especially children, safe online.  Different pieces of legislation will come together to form this overall online safety framework: 

• The Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, the basis for An Coimisiún’s Online Safety Code 
• The EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive 
• The EU Digital Services Act (fully applicable from February 17th 2024) 
• The EU Terrorist Content Online Regulation 

Coimisiún na Meán also continues to support Media Literacy Ireland and the Be Media Smart Campaign, to ensure that everyone in Ireland has the skills and confidence to access information online, to understand how digital services work and to manage the risks that people can face online. 

Safer Internet Day in Ireland is coordinated by the Irish Safer Internet Centre, a partnership between Webwise, ISPCC, National Parents Council Primary and Hotline.ie, providing a range of complementary online safety services, including an education and awareness centre, child and parent helplines and a hotline. The Centre is coordinated by the Department of Justice and co-funded by the European Union. 

After more than thirty years in media regulation, Celene Craig has decided not to seek a full five-year term as Broadcasting and Video-on-Demand Commissioner when her current term expires in March this year.

Celene, formerly the CEO of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, was appointed as Broadcasting and Video-on-Demand Commissioner for an initial one-year term by Minister Catherine Martin when Coimisiún na Meán was established in March 2023, under the provisions of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022. 

Celene’s term as Commissioner ends on March 15^th 2024. The role of Broadcasting and Video-on-Demand Commissioner is now being advertised by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. The recruitment process is run by the Public Appointments Service. Any further queries on the process should be directed to the Department or the Public Appointments Service. 

Jeremy Godfrey, Executive Chair at Coimisiún na Meán said: 

“Celene has been a stalwart of media regulation in Ireland for more than thirty years. Over her career, she has made a significant contribution to legislative and policy developments in the sector in Ireland and Europe. During the past year, she has been generous in sharing her unrivalled knowledge of the media landscape as we have made the transition from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland into Coimisiún na Meán. Her warm, collegial nature will be sorely missed by the other Commissioners and myself, as well as by all our colleagues at Coimisiún na Meán. We all wish her well for the future.” 

Celene Craig, Broadcasting and Video-on-Demand Commissioner, said:  

“After a hugely enjoyable career at Coimisiún na Meán, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) and the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC), I have decided to step back from the role of Broadcasting and Video-on-Demand Commissioner. It has been a privilege to work at the cutting edge of the transforming media sector at both Irish and European levels.  In recent years, it has been particularly rewarding to contribute to shaping the new Irish online safety regulatory framework and in leading the BAI into the new regulatory body.  It has been a privilege to participate with my fellow commissioners and colleagues in establishing and operationalising Coimisiún na Meán in its first exciting year of establishment.  I commend their professionalism, dedication, and commitment to the tasks at hand wish them well in their future work. I look forward to seeing An Coimisiún continuing to grow and develop in the years ahead and in delivering a diverse, thriving and safe media landscape.”  

ENDS

Coimisiún na Meán, Ireland’s new body for regulating broadcasters, on-demand services, and online media, and supporting media development, has today (09.01.24) published details of the designation of ten services as named video-sharing platform services.  

The designation process for these services was completed during December 2023. 

The designated services are: 

• Facebook 
• Instagram 
• YouTube 
• Udemy 
• TikTok 
• LinkedIn 
• X 
• Pinterest 
• Tumblr 

• Reddit 

The draft Online Safety Code, which is currently subject to public consultation, can be applied to these services. The finalised Code will form part of Ireland’s overall online safety framework. This framework will make a range of online services legally accountable for how they keep people safe online. This framework is based on the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, the EU Digital Services Act and the EU Terrorist Content Online Regulation. 

ENDS 

Media contact: Joanne Ahern / Síona Cahill, DHR Communications, Tel: 087-9881837 / 087 -7530255 

All other queries: Coimisiún na Meán, 01-6441200. 

About Coimisiún na Meán: 

Coimisiún na Meán is Ireland’s new commission for regulating broadcasters, on-demand services and online media, and supporting media development. Established in March 2023 under the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, it builds on the work of its predecessor, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. It is responsible for ensuring and maintaining a thriving and diverse media landscape in Ireland that facilitates a mix of voices, opinions and sources of news and current affairs, as well as a safe online environment. 

Its responsibilities are to: 

• Oversee the funding of and support the development of the wider media sector in Ireland. 
• Oversee the regulation of broadcasting and video-on-demand services. 
• Develop and enforce the Irish regulatory regime for online safety. 

About Designation: 

Under the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, Coimisiún na Meán is responsible for regulating video-sharing platforms which have their EU base in Ireland.  

By law, Coimisiún na Meán is required to designate video-sharing platform services, the provider of which is under the jurisdiction of the State, as a category of services to which an online safety code may be applied. Notice of this designation was published on 14 August 2023 and the designation took effect on 11 September 2023. Coimisiún na Meán must also designate as a named service any relevant online service that appears to be a VSPS where the provider of the service is under the jurisdiction of the State.