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The media landscape in Ireland

According to a study commissioned by the Irish publishing houses each year, 91 percent of Irish adults read newspapers regularly. Of the numerous dailies, the rather conservative Irish Independent has the best sales figures. In Northern Ireland the most successful papers are the Irish News, which has close ties to the Social Democrats and the Liberals, and the pro-Unionist Belfast Newsletter. The Irish editions of the British papers make up the bulk of the Irish dailies, with a high proportion of British coverage.

Dublin, Custum House an der Liffey
Foto: Motorito v001.9 beta, Lizenz: Creative Commons by-nc/2.0

The most important Irish publications are often associated with a strong political orientation. The daily The Irish Times is regarded as the most liberal newspaper on social issues, while the Irish Independent is seen as a conservative paper. Nowadays none of the newspapers has a reputation for having links to a certain party. The opinions on Northern Ireland range from strongly anti-Republican (Sunday Independent) to pro-Republican (Sunday Business Post).

The most widely read Sunday paper is the Sunday Independent, with one million readers. Of the Irish-language (Gaelic) papers the most important are the daily La Núa and the weekly Foinse.

There are four terrestrial television channels in the Republic of Ireland: RTE One, RTE Two, TG4 and TV3 Ireland. Northern Ireland has three national terrestrial channels: BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC Two Northern Ireland and UTV. A broad selection of British private channels can be received via satellite in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The Northern Ireland conflict (which lasted from the end of the 1960s to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998) led to temporary restrictions on press freedom, with the Republic of Ireland being most affected. From 1971 until 1994 the Ministry for Post and Telecommunications used the 1960 Broadcasting Act to ban programmes which were suspected of promoting violence in Northern Ireland.

Because the spread of broadband Internet is still in its infancy, particularly in rural areas, the online presence of the individual dailies as well as the blogosphere is insignificant at this point in time.

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