Corporate Responsibility 2006 Audiences / Staff / Business

Corporate Responsibility 2006 Audiences / Staff / Business interactions / Government and Regulators / Environment The European Commission defi nes Corporate Social Responsibility as a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders, on a voluntary basis. It includes managing change at company level in a socially responsible manner. Use of the term is gradually evolving and it is now generally referred to as Corporate Responsibility. 02 Foreword 01 04 Introduction 06 About RTÉ 06 The changing landscape 06 Acting in the public interest 07 The wider context 08 MEETING THE NEEDS OF OUR AUDIENCES 09 Understanding and responding to our audiences 12 Feedback from our audiences 12 Audience council 13 Safeguarding children 14 Informing citizenship 14 Refl ecting our changing society 15 Developing talent 15 Working with communities 19 CASE STUDY Broadcasting for the hard of hearing 22 RTÉ STAFF 23 Employer of choice 23 Remuneration and working conditions 25 Welfare of staff 25 Position of women 25 Staff selection and development 26 Staff relations and partnership in RTÉ 26 Health and safety 27 Physical work environment 27 Responsibilities of staff 27 Support for charities 29 CASE STUDY The RTÉ childcare co-operative (crèche) 30 OUR BUSINESS INTERACTIONS 31 Our advertisers 32 Our suppliers 32 Independent producers 35 CASE STUDY RTÉNL and local communities 36 GOVERNMENT AND REGULATORS 37 Responsibilities of the RTÉ authority 37 (a) Corporate regulatory environment 38 (b) Corporate accountability 38 (c) Corporate compliance 38 (d) Self-Regulation 38 (e) External Regulation 39 A step further 39 Public Service Broadcasting Charter 41 CASE STUDY Transparency in the expenditure of public money 42 THE ENVIRONMENT 43 Awareness 43 Environment and the community 43 Continuous improvement 43 Property management 43 Procurement 43 Waste management 45 CASE STUDY Recent developments in environmental ‘best practice’ 48 Feedback 51 Appendix 1 – RTÉ’s complaints process 52 Appendix 2 – Programme safety in RTÉ Radio and RTÉ Television 54 Appendix 3 – RTÉ lyric fm’s Breakfast Club Gazette 02 For over 70 years RTÉ has been central to Irish life. FOREWORD 03 The impact of RTÉ’s broadcasts RTÉ is serious about Corporate RTÉ’s Values are to: and activities far outweigh the Responsibility (CR) and this fi rst } Operate in the public interest, impact that any other media group report is in large part consultative. providing News and Current has had; this is in part because, as It is an initial report identifying Affairs that is fair and impartial, Ireland’s Public Service Broadcaster key areas of responsibility, accurate and challenging (PSB), RTÉ is an organisation built on giving specifi c examples of CR } Connect with our audiences by trust, and works to ensure that: activities and, most importantly, understanding and satisfying seeking feedback. The next report, their needs } Audiences can trust in the truth shaped to a signifi cant extent by } Deliver a value for money service and impartiality of RTÉ’s News stakeholder feedback, will build } Be creative in everything we do and Current Affairs programming on this by setting realistic and } Be honest and transparent in all } Audiences can trust that RTÉ measurable ambitions. of our activities is independent from vested } Take personal responsibility for interests and free from political This CR Report is complementary to pursuing the Organisation’s goals control or infl uence RTÉ’s Annual Report and Consolidated } Be responsible to our staff } Licence Fee payers can trust Financial Statements and does and consider everyone as an RTÉ to give them a value for not cover the same ground; they individual money service in return for their complement each other. It is } Optimise the performance of payments designed to give the audience a each person, department, division } Staff can trust that they are sense of the diversity of corporate and the Organisation by working working for an organisation that responsibilities undertaken by together treats them fairly, gives them the RTÉ. There is nothing new in the } Respect each other and our opportunity for self-development practice of CR for RTÉ but we will diversity and makes a difference in society now report on it. } Take pride in everything we do, } Advertisers can trust that their everything we are and everything investment in RTÉ airtime brings In autumn 2005 RTÉ’s Strategic we create. them a good business return – Framework, detailing the Vision, ensured in part by the signifi cant Mission and Values of the Trust is the foundation stone of proportion of Irish programming Organisation, was launched. It is RTÉ as a Public Service Broadcaster. in RTÉ schedules clear from that document that Our audiences expect that they } Members of minority groups and for RTÉ to succeed it recognises can trust us to be independent, interests can trust RTÉ to seek to that it must be a good corporate impartial and honest in all of cater for their needs citizen. The key elements of that our activities. As we develop our } All stakeholders can trust framework are: Corporate Responsibility reporting RTÉ to provide high quality we believe it will give our audiences schedules available on a free- RTÉ’s Vision is to: an added measure of assurance, to-air basis and programming } Grow the trust of the people of which they deserve from their that respects the views of the Ireland as it informs, inspires, national Public Service Broadcaster. audience, enhances their cultural refl ects and enriches their lives. expectations and recognises regional interests and cultural RTÉ’s Mission is to: diversity. } Nurture and refl ect the cultural and regional diversity of all the Growing this trust is core to the people of Ireland Organisation’s PSB remit, which } Provide distinctive programming RTÉ is determined to fulfi l in a and services of the highest comprehensive way. This entails quality and ambition, with the building value for our audiences emphasis on home production and acting responsibly through all } Inform the Irish public by our activities and corporate actions. delivering, nation-wide, the best comprehensive independent RTÉ’s approach to Corporate News service possible Responsibility is based on the moral } Enable national participation in case that, as Ireland’s Public Service all major events. Broadcaster, we have a responsibility to do the right thing for Irish society. 04 RTÉ’s core public service remit is to bring Irish people programmes, and associated services, that inform, educate and entertain. Implicit in this is the responsibility for the organisation to be a good corporate citizen and to act in the public interest. INTRODUCTION 05 Just as our fi nancial performance is We are accountable to our measured and assessed so should stakeholders and we are the social and environmental determined to meet their legitimate dimensions of our activities. expectations of our services. Therefore this Report is an This means that RTÉ must live important fi rst step in the public its Mission and Values with commitment we are making to integrity, thus growing the trust the Corporate Responsibility (CR). In audiences have in the Organisation it we have highlighted the key and its services. RTÉ holds a stakeholders we have responsibility privileged position as Ireland’s PSB to and the areas where we need and must be consistently aware of to measure the impact of our the responsibilities that this entails. activities and report on regularly Our impact will be seen not only – in an open and transparent way, in the way we inform, educate and recording the good and the bad entertain but in a variety of other news in an impartial manner. We ways such as how we: have presented a case study in each key area to give a concrete example } Contribute to the enrichment of of current activity, to indicate the cultural life of the island of our practical approach to CR. In Ireland future reports we will set targets } Support the democratic process for improvement and report on } Refl ect the changing nature of successes and failures alike. Irish society } Reach out to the Irish Diaspora As this is our fi rst CR Report we particularly via RTÉ.ie start with a look at the wider } Meet the needs of the most context followed by a brief disadvantaged in our society description of our business } Help Irish people to bridge the and the changing broadcasting digital divide. environment in Ireland. The framework adopted for our CR Overall we must serve our Report may change in future years audiences as members of a but the key stakeholders and areas changing society – and not merely identifi ed will always be addressed: as consumers of our products. } RTÉ’s Audiences, including communities we work with } RTÉ Staff } Business Interactions } Government and Regulators } Our Environment. 06 INTRODUCTION About RTÉ The changing landscape Acting in the public interest The people of Ireland own RTÉ, and As Irish broadcasting moves to Despite the changing landscape it is a not-for-profi t organisation. a digital age, RTÉ is committed one thing will not change; the very It is approximately 50% funded by to developing and changing high expectations Irish audiences public money (through the Licence as necessary to maintain an have of RTÉ – and in particular the Fee) and 50% commercial revenue excellence of service to the people high editorial standards. They are (mainly through advertising and of Ireland. RTÉ must maximise on right to have these expectations sponsorship). RTÉ has undergone new ways of connecting with its and RTÉ consistently strives to major changes since 2000 and audiences – while not exacerbating meet them. RTÉ sets public interest has been restructured into six effects of the digital divide. Access tests for itself that include: Integrated Business Divisions (IBDs) to and use of the new wave of and a corporate centre.

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