On the 7th April, I sent an email to the Director General of RTE about a proposal to allow National Newspaper of Ireland websites access to the News footage of the National Broadcaster.
Following a reply today from the Head of Corporate Communications, RTE I have sent this follow up email.
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Dear Mr. Dawson,
Many thanks for your response.
To clarify, I am not requesting notification of any agreement reached to make RTÉ News footage available to 3rd parties. Rather I am seeking to participate in that agreement, including its negotiation or discussions prior to its announcement.
Please confirm you will ensure that the members of the National Newspapers of Ireland will not be given preferential access to RTE footage over any other person or site, including myself and Tuppenceworth.ie, and that you will forward to me any preparatory documents, deeds or discussion papers (in either final or draft status) which are required for such access to RTÉ News content being granted to Tuppenceworth.ie.
I would again stress that I would be very concerned by reports that the contemplated agreement would seek to limit use of that footage by licence payers running online fora. This would be one of a number of issues I consider to be live in this process.
I should add as a reassurance that, while I am intending to publish my side of this correspondence on Tuppenceworth.ie, I would of course be willing to engage with any negotiations on reasonable agreed terms of confidentiality, if required.
Yours faithfully,
Simon McGarr