On 9 November 2026, Coimisiún na Meán opened formal investigations into two local radio stations, South East Radio in Wexford and Tipp FM in Tipperary. RTÉ reported that they are the first formal investigations of a broadcaster since the regulator was set up. The Irish case is worth watching beyond Ireland. It shows what happens when a regulator built mainly for online platforms turns its enforcement machinery on the oldest medium in the country.
The case for the regulator
The strongest argument for acting is simple. Broadcasters hold licences to use a public resource, and Irish law has long required that current affairs be handled fairly. Section 46L of the Broadcasting Act 2009 requires that news is reported "in an objective and impartial manner and without any expression of the broadcaster's or provider's own views". It also requires that the treatment of current affairs be "fair to all interests concerned" (Broadcasting Act 2009, revised). A rule that is never enforced is not a rule. Listeners who say they were misquoted or mischaracterised deserve a process that does more than file the complaint away.
The regulator also did not invent this power. The Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, enacted on 10 December 2022, amended the 2009 Act to establish Coimisiún na Meán (Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, revised). The Oireachtas decided that a single body would police both broadcasting codes and online safety duties. These investigations are conducted under Part 8B of the 2009 Act, so they use powers Parliament gave the regulator.
What is being examined
According to TheJournal, the Tipp FM complaint concerns a segment of Tipp Today in August 2024. In it a listener's letter about men cutting rhododendron in woodland was read on air, and the complaint alleges it referred to "groups of foreign men". The principles examined include respect for persons and groups in society and protection of the public interest. RTÉ reports that the Tipp FM investigation covers both the Code of Programme Standards and the Code of Fairness, Objectivity and Impartiality in News and Current Affairs.
The South East Radio complaint is different in kind. TheJournal reports that it concerns December 2024 broadcasts about Tom Enright, the former Wexford County Council chief executive. The complainant says the presenter was "not impartial or balanced, and misquoted statements". The same report notes that in 2022 the Standards in Public Office Commission found Enright had threatened to withdraw council funding from the station, findings he called "flawed and disproportionate". A station that reported on a dispute in which it was itself a party is exactly where editorial independence is most fragile.
No findings have been made. TheJournal says the investigations will run for months before any conclusions. Tipp FM said it would continue to engage with the Commission, and South East Radio did not comment to RTÉ.
Where the proportionality problem sits
The fact that the power exists does not settle how it should be used. There are three concerns.
First, the penalty ceiling is out of scale with the target. RTÉ reports that sanctions can reach "a fine of up to 10% of turnover, or €20 million", and must be confirmed by the Circuit Court or High Court. Court confirmation is a real safeguard. But a €20m ceiling set against a small regional station is a deterrent in itself. That is the kind of regulatory pressure Free Speech Ireland warns could chill journalism, though that group is an advocacy organisation and its framing should be read as such. The maximum will almost certainly never be imposed on a local station. A station owner who is weighing whether to run a sharp local story still has to price in the legal cost of defending an investigation.
Second, the two cases mix different questions. Impartiality in the treatment of a named public official is a narrow, testable standard. Whether a read-out listener letter shows adequate respect for groups in society is far more subjective, and standards of that kind invite inconsistent enforcement. The regulator should say publicly which provision each finding rests on and why, so that other broadcasters can learn the line from a published decision.
Third, the regulator has told the public little. Free Speech Ireland complains that the programmes and statements involved were not identified. The regulator can reasonably protect parties during an inquiry, but a published decision with full reasoning at the end is the minimum for rules that bind speakers.
What proportionate enforcement looks like
The right outcome here is not that the regulator should do nothing. It is that it should start at the bottom of the enforcement ladder. A finding of breach, a requirement to broadcast a correction or an on-air statement, and a compliance undertaking all deliver accountability to the complainant without putting a small station's solvency in play. Financial sanctions should be reserved for repeated or deliberate breaches, and the reasoning should always be public.
The regulator should also give the sector clearer guidance on how fairness rules apply to listener contributions and phone-ins. Local radio runs on listener participation, and a station cannot safely run an open line if one on-air remark can trigger a formal investigation. Pre-emptive guidance is cheaper for everyone than case-by-case enforcement after the fact.
The broader lesson for Ireland and for other jurisdictions building combined media and online regulators is about sequencing. A regulator that opens its enforcement record with two small local stations, rather than with its largest and best-resourced licensees, risks being seen as picking the targets that can least afford to fight. How these two cases end, and how openly the reasoning is published, will say more about the 2022 settlement than the statute does.