SIPTU has expressed regret at the decision of the committee of Dublin Community Television (DCTV) to begin the orderly wind down of the station due to lack of funding. SIPTU Community Sector Organiser, Darragh O’Connor, said: “DCTV provided a valuable and unique platform for issues of concern for local communities to be aired. It also provided an important resource in terms of media training for community groups.“Its closure will further diminish public debate and cultural diversity within the media, at a time when they are needed more than ever. SIPTU members and other workers employed by the station now face a new year without jobs to which they were totally committed."On 21st October 2013 the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) made it known that it would not be funding any of DCTV’s project submissions. Alongside this decision, BAI support for DCTV projects through the Sound & Vision scheme had dropped. Funding for 2012 was seven times higher than the funds received in 2013.Former DCTV Manager, Ciaran Moore, said: “It was with great sadness that the DCTV Committee of Management made the decision to begin the orderly wind down of the station, with a planned cessation of broadcast in February 2014. However, financial constraints meant that no other option was available.“If community media is to be the vibrant sector it is in most other European countries, the way current funding schemes operate in Ireland must be reassessed and improved.”A special media screening of The Inquiry, a DCTV feature length (one hour) production which dramatises the events of the Askwith Inquiry into the 1913 Lockout will be held in the Connolly Hall, Liberty Hall, on Tuesday, 12th November, at 6.45 p.m.The screening will be followed by a Question and Answer session with DCTV workers on the future of community television in Ireland.
SIPTU regrets closure of Dublin Community Television
