OFMDFM reported over £20k ad campaign
PETER Robinson and Martin McGuinness's department has defended its £20,000 Hillsborough Agreement advertising campaign as rival parties denounced the initiative.
The campaign, which includes advertisements in the Province’s three daily newspapers as well as on commercial radio stations, promotes the DUP-Sinn Fein policing and justice agreement.
It encourages people to both read the document and respond to the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM).
The advertisements describe the agreement as ‘securing a better future for all’ but Ulster Unionist deputy leader Danny Kennedy said: “The only problem with this strap line is that we realistically have no idea what the deal is.
“It is much too early for these two parties to sell a deal which remains incomplete.
“The people of Northern Ireland deserve to know exactly what was agreed at Hillsborough ... including what side deals have been done.”
The TUV said that it had reported OFMDFM to both broadcasting regulator OFCOM and the Electoral Commission over the advertising campaign because it believed the adverts breached the Communications Act 2003.
A TUV spokesman said: “With the adverts being run in advance of votes on policing and justice in the Assembly on March 9, 2010, their purpose clearly is political and thus inappropriate breaches of the Communications Act.”
The spokesman called on OFCOM to block the adverts and said that the Electoral Commission should consider them as part of the allocation of party-political promotions in the run-up to the General Election.
SDLP Assemblyman Alban Maginness said that the issue should have been decided by the full Executive and questioned whether it was a wise use of public funds.
He said: “As SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan remarked, this campaign sails close to the wind by breaching neutrality in the context of an impending General Election.”
And Alliance leader David Ford said that while his party “strongly welcomes” the deal, the DUP and Sinn Fein’s “costly advertising campaign is condescending and may not go down well with the public”.
A spokesman for OFMDFM said: “The campaign is factual and draws on comments from the First Minister and Deputy First Minister which have already received widespread coverage across the media.
“Its aim is to give people an opportunity to read the agreement and make up their own minds. Nearly 15,000 people have already downloaded the Agreement so there is clearly a demand. The cost of the advertising campaign is just under 20,000.”
Copies of the agreement can be obtained by dialling 101 or visiting nidirect.gov.uk/agreement. Responses can be sent to: Hillsborough Castle Agreement, First Minister and Deputy First Minister, Stormont Castle, Belfast BT4 3TT or emailed to agreement@ofmdfmni.gov.uk
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Monday 28 May 2012
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