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From the Sunday Independent – Interview of Pat Cox was ‘one-sided’ and ‘unfair’:

An interview conducted by the RTE broadcaster, Marian Finucane, with the aspirant Fine Gael presidential candidate Pat Cox, during which he gave a “partisan and patronising lecture to the nation”, has been found to be unfair, partial and lacking in objectivity.

Yesterday the anti-EU campaigner who brought the complaint to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) said he was “rather surprised” by the ruling in his favour.

He said he had expected it to be rejected “especially as it involved such a well-known ultra-europhile as Mr Cox, who is now seeking the Fine Gael nomination for the Presidency”.

Anthony Coughlan told the Sunday Independent that he happened to hear accidentally Mr Cox’s “lengthy exposition of the background to our current troubles” on Saturday, April 2.

He described it as “extraordinarily unctuous, patronising, unbalanced and designed above all to deflect criticisms away from EU institutions, and particularly the European Central Bank”.

The BAI ruled that the broadcast treatment of a “major issue of public concern and consequence” resulted in one view being given prominence without ensuring the alternative viewpoints were fairly represented.

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