New guidelines regulating the coverage of future elections have been published by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, BAI Chief Executive Michael O'Keeffe said the new measures demand broadcasters have appropriate policies and procedures to achieve fairness and objectivity and deal with conflicts of interests which arise on air.
Mr O'Keeffe said that editorial responsibility remains with the broadcaster, but with that comes a requirement that they do have guidelines in place to cover different types of on-air contributions including those from social media.
He said under the new guidelines broadcasters have to ensure the veracity of what is being put forward through social media.
Broadcasters must ensure it is from a trusted source and is fair.
As a result of the controversial Frontline tweet on RTÉ in the last presidential election, Mr O'Keeffe said that social media has evolved and broadcasters are more familiar with how to intervene and deal with messages on social media.
The BAI require that within a broadcaster's own internal guidelines they have processes and procedures in place to deal with different sources and content.
He said that care needs to be shown because of the ability to manipulate stories and manipulate situations through social media.
