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Viewers in NI are waiting for easier access to TG4 promised by the British Government in the Good Friday Agreement. TG4
Irish language intermission
Thirty years after the Good Friday Agreement, better access to TG4 is still needed in NI
There’s a new impetus to the campaign to improve access to TG4 north of the border as better channel placement on the Freeview EPG is being sought.
(Seo alt ónár bhfoireann nua Gaeltachta. Is féidir an bunleagan as Gaeilge a léamh anseo.)
THE CAMPAIGN TO to make TG4 more accessible north of the border is heating up again, almost 30 years after the British Government committed in the Good Friday Agreement to explore the possibilities of making the channel more widely available in Northern Ireland.
According to Claire Hanna, leader of the SDLP, a campaign is being run to make TG4 available on Channel 8 on Freeview, the Northern equivalent of Saorview. TG4 is currently available on 53 or, depending on the circumstances, between 51-53.
This means that TG4 – along with RTÉ 1 and RTÉ 2 – is down in the electronic programme guide behind repeat channels such as Great Mystery, Ideal World and Great Romance.
Channel 8 is currently vacant and the Westminster MP for South Belfast is hopeful that TG4 will be able to fill that gap.
According to Hanna, the Minister of State with responsibility for broadcasting in the British Government, Ian Murray, is indicating that the authorities in that country are interested in looking into the issue again.
“We need to see progress at long last,” said the SDLP MP.
“Foras Na Gaeilge and other campaigners have been working for nearly a decade to secure formal recognition for TG4 as a public service broadcaster in Northern Ireland, alongside an increased presence through better channel placement,” she said.
“Given the current boom the Irish language is experiencing across our island and further afield this is an important opportunity to revisit this issue.
We have made significant, but long overdue progress in recognition of the Irish language in Northern Ireland in recent years and this official status for TG4 would mark another important step forward for the Irish language community, ensuring they have the same access to broadcast media as other native language speakers across the UK and Ireland.
“I welcome the UK Government indicating a willingness to look again at this issue and work with the Northern Ireland Office on it, but we need to see some progress at long last.”
In the Good Friday Agreement, signed by the majority of parties in the north as well as the British and Irish Governments, the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, promised that the authorities in the United Kingdom would investigate the possibility of widespread access to the Irish language channel.
There were many delays in this process and access to TG4 has been blocked many times since then. Before 1998 and in the analogue era, access to TG4 was only possible with a special aerial that was installed on your home but, with the advent of the digital age in broadcasting, new difficulties such as geo-blocking have arisen and this is something that the SDLP is also working to resolve.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in London said that the British Government supported the provision of “Irish public service broadcasting on Freeview in Northern Ireland”.
We have been clear that we will consider adding TG4 to the list of public service channels to make it more easily accessible.
We will enter into further discussions and hope to make progress later this year,” the spokesperson said.
The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
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