Members of the Irish parliament claim they were censored by a government TV station that refused to put their pro-abortion sweaters on air.
Ruth Coppinger, Paul Murphy and Richard Boyd Barrett say that official TV feeds of proceedings in Dáil Éireann – Ireland’s main legislature – were altered to conceal their clothes while they were speaking.
Screengrabs of proceedings show that a side-facing video stream was used when the cameras focused on Murphy and Boyd Barrett, obscuring the word “Repeal” on their black sweaters.
The #Dáil cameras deliberately took a sideways angle to obscure @paulmurphyAAA and @RBoydBarrett's 'REPEAL' jumpers pic.twitter.com/oKQ7GWkGYK
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) March 8, 2017
The trio of TDs (Teachtaí Dála, Gaelic for Members of Parliament) wore the items of clothing on Wednesday – International Women’s Day – to support a long-running campaign against Ireland’s ban on abortion.
Pro-abortion activists have rallied under the slogan “Repeal the 8th” – a reference to the 1983 Eighth Amendment which gives the ban legal force.
TDs wore identical sweaters in a debate a year ago and were chastised by the Ceann Comhairle (speaker) for wearing overtly political clothing. However, they were allowed to appear on TV nonetheless.
During Wednesday’s session, Ruth Coppinger realized that the slogans were being obscured and complained about it.
According to BreakingNews.ie, she said: “Minister, I am wearing a repeal shirt and I hope that the censorship that’s going on right now in relation to the camera work not showing that will end… I don’t think we should be censoring the word ‘repeal’ in the Dáil.”
