TV personality, Darren Kennedy delivers a passionate plea to the people of Ireland to vote YES on May 22 – despite RTÉ’s “gagging order”.
TV presenter Darren Kennedy yesterday posted a video to his personal YouTube channel encouraging voters to vote Yes in the upcoming marriage referendum – which seemingly goes against RTÉ’s imposed “gagging order” on all staff in the weeks leading up polling day.
Speaking about the referendum in the video, Kennedy said,”[It is] one of the most important political chapters of our generation.”
Adding, “It’s a time in history, where we get to stand up and show what we think and really it’s about love. And about the right to equal love”.
His comments seemed to contradict a controversial memo that was circulated by RTÉ’s Head of Broadcast Compliance David McKenna. It was sent to all staff, independent production companies and freelancers and warned them not to take a political stance on the referendum as it would “contribute to the perception that the organisation has a point of view on these topics”.
“For the duration of the campaign debate, you should not state on social media your views on either of the two referendums; this includes banners, retweets, Twitter avatars, watermarks and so on,” the memo read.
However, a spokesperson for the state broadcaster told the Irish Independent that while Kennedy’s show The Unemployables is currently being broadcast on the channel, filming took place some time ago and that the presenter is no longer under contract.
She clarified, “Darren Kennedy has an established career as a stylist and journalist across a range of media outlets, as well as being an occasional presenter on RTÉ. While Darren is currently on air on RTÉ2, he is not under RTÉ contract at present as the series was filmed some time ago.
“The position as regards contractors and guests is reflected in the statement issued earlier this month.”
Watch Darren Kennedy’s video below:
© 2015 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.
comments. Please sign in to comment.