Zed FM/Scrollside Supreme Court appeal to Phantom FM licence heard - FEBRUARY 17

TrickyKid

Rockiemalt wrote:

supreme court decision is now due in a few weeks time

jsut to point out that members of the Zed fm consortium were also involved in pirate broadcasting, not that this makes it right but jsut to make people aware

Wow Rockie - are you sure about that?
which of the shareholders were involved in Pirate broadcasting? That's a huge accusation to make!

JJ

I think Round 1 goes to Pete. I reckon he's already sent a letter to the Oirish Slimes.

BrianD

TrickyKid wrote:

Wow Rockie - are you sure about that?
which of the shareholders were involved in Pirate broadcasting? That's a huge accusation to make!

As far as we know, no shareholder in the Zed FM consortium was involved in unlicenced broadcasting in recent times.

Smurfpiss

Seriously Pete, I think a "Dear Madam" letter is called for to the editor of the Irish times. Another pro (though slightly less obvious) zed fm article was written today...But for O'Toole to state these things as fact in Ireland's leading newspaper and expect to get away with it is ridiculous.
Makes Kevin Myers look like a saint...

egg_

I'm a bit disappointed with O'Toole, he's normally on the ball - but he's right to criticise the BCI, it really is a ridiculous organisation

SimonMaher

From the letters to the editor page today in The Irish Times:

PHANTOM FM LICENCE APPLICATION

Madam, - Fintan O'Toole's column of February 14th, entitled "Regulator that likes to say yes", contained a number of damaging factual inaccuracies about Phantom FM which should be corrected.

Firstly, the article states that "when the new licence came up, Phantom went off air again". This is incorrect. Phantom ceased FM operations on May 28th 2003, almost a year before the licence was advertised in May 2004.

The article goes on to state that Phantom FM held a "special event" license without specifying a special event. The statutory provision for temporary sound broadcasting contracts is that they are limited purely by duration, and are not limited by use for special events or otherwise. Many stations, from oldies music to ethnic services and traffic information, have used these temporary contracts.

The piece then claims that Phantom FM accepted advertising during its temporary broadcasts, in contravention of Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) rules. This too is incorrect. Phantom did not take advertisements during either temporary contract. Sponsorship is, however allowed; this includes mentions of a sponsor's name, slogan and contact details.

The column then claims that "Phantom was supposed to submit sponsorship messages to BCI for approval". However, there is no requirement for sponsorship messages to be submitted to the BCI for approval in advance.

Possibly the most serious allegation is that Phantom FM broadcast for a period of time without libel insurance. Insurance cover was in place for the entire duration of the broadcasts for both temporary contracts and covered both companies concerned at all times.

Given the above clarifications, allegations of being "rather less than punctilious" about license requirements cannot be justified and could unfairly damage the reputation of Phantom FM. - Yours, etc,

SIMON MAHER, General Manager, Phantom FM, Camden Row Dublin 8.

JJ

You go boyeeee! Maybe Finatan O'Fool will get a bollocking from his editor.

flogen

Sock It To 'im!!!

Smurfpiss

flogen wrote:

Sock It To 'im!!!

i thought only my dad said that!
Yeah I read it in the letters page today. most impressed by your rebuttle. We're right behind ya pete!

Dudess

Nicely done there, Simon.

projectmayhem

nice work mr.reed...

i'm sick of this whole debacle. i just want to switch on my radio again. i rarely use the damn thing at this stage and i don't know how much my mp3 player can take... (well, i do... about 7gigs, but that's not the point)

Rockiemalt

my mammy knows i'm a phantom fan and brought me the news paper and said you had a letter in it and then made me explain the debacle to her

Wacker

Rockiemalt wrote:

my mammy knows i'm a phantom fan and brought me the news paper and said you had a letter in it and then made me explain the debacle to her

I'll just text you next time Rockie.

pdxa4

Good luck to Phantom FM, hopefully we get to hear the judges decision soon and that we can listen to Phantom on-air again.

stimpson

http://www.courts.ie/judgments.nsf/HomePage?OpenForm

This is the courts Judgment database. The decison should be published there once it has been made.

Best of luck lads.

JJ

Ye can read the High Court judgement here in the meantime if you like:

http://tinyurl.com/fghe2

By the time you finish it, the Supreme Court may have made their decision.

Dudess

Any developments re Supreme Court decision?

Boyclan

yeah come on spill those legal beans

SimonMaher

Hello all,

Nope, no news so far. Supreme Court can take a long time to come back with a judgement. Hopefully in this case, it wont be too long at all but we just have to sit and wait. Impatiently!

Will bring you news as soon as we have it.

Regards,

Pete Reed
reed@phantomfm.com
www.phantomfm.com

monkey lover

jesus, just looked at that judgement thing (well the title and a few lines)

The license was awarded in November 2004!!! Didn't think it was that long ago.

graylion

it's actually well worth reading. That judge is a smart man

Dudess

I can't take it! It's seven weeks on Wednesday since the Supreme Court hearing.

JJ

I feel your pain.

SimonMaher

Dudess wrote:

I can't take it! It's seven weeks on Wednesday since the Supreme Court hearing.

Welcome to our world

Courts are off on their Easter break at the end of this week so there will most likely be no news until after April 24th. Fingers always crossed though.

Regards,

Pete Reed
reed@phantomfm.com
www.phantomfm.com

flogen

This is getting painful, I expected a decision by now, but it might be May??

earlier in the year I was wondering if I'd be home in time for the launch (due back in mid-may), now I wonder if I'll be home in time for the Supreme Court decision.

Dudess

Oh well. Can't be helped. Thanks for the update, Pete.

Dudess

Think I'm going to be sick. Was speaking to a barrister and he said it's possible Zed could take it to the EU court if the appeal doesn't swing in their favour.