Happy International Women's Day
Trocaire is doing an amazing Lenten campaign this year, one when I heard I thought 'wow thats great'. Then I heard it had been taken off the air by the Broadcast Commission of Ireland (BCI).
Have a look and try to work out why.
The BCI took this ad off because the ad contains their website which has a page with an online petition that Trócaire is running as part of its Lenten campaign.
The petition urges the Irish government to implement UN resolution 1325 relating to gender inequality and specifically the protection of women in times of conflict.
"The BCI appears to believe that because our website address is in the ad we are directing people to take a political action. However, our website address is in the ad so that people can donate online or order a Trócaire box and this is specified in the wording," Trocaire says on it's website.
Trocaire is appealing this decision.
So for International Women's Day (March 8th) you could sign the petition on gender equality at the core of all this nonsense which you can find here.
You can read more thoughts on the dreadful decision by the BCI on Irisheyes and Ask Direct.
Trocaire is also launching an online community where people can blog about social injustice. You can check it out here.
Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs Trocaire International Womens Day Trocaire Lenten Campaign BCI
11 comments:
What a foolish decision. Still, hopefully the controversy it causes will incite even more interest. There's certainly a lot of people blogging about it.
I saw the news report last night about the add being banned and hopped straight on line to sign the petition! It's a disgrace that the add should be pulled. Trocaire are doing a mighty job highlighting an important and troubling issue and they deserve our encouragement... Sorry for ranting!
Working in advertising, well the production side I was appalled to hear this decision and have also gone on a rant about it on my page. Also it was my "young wans" first staring role in a tv ad, at 4 months of age, imagine how she feels now. BTW she is the hand in the third shot and the baby at the end where they have all the babies second row down furthest right.
Thanks for alerting people about this petition. I hope everyone signs it. The irony about the ad being banned is downright painful. It makes BCI come off looking like they are in favour of gender discrimination.
It's moral idiocy to take an advert that increases awareness of these issues off the air for some weak-kneed wish to be seen as politically neutral. This isn't a political matter, it's a human rights matter.
Trocaire are the charity supported by the Catholic Church. Have they allowed women to become priests yet?
This isn't a political matter, it's a human rights matter.
Exactly, that's what I said in my email to BCI.
I agree with Anonymous.
The Catholic Church should practise what they preach, and stamp out gender inequality themselves.
From what I hear, this is only the start of the clamp down. It seems they want to match London's BACC in terms of strictness.
When I was on the train, coming back from Dublin with my lady friends last week, one of them started talking about the mutilations that women undergo in the Muslim world. I told her not every muslim country does this, and would we please have a look at the Western Catholic church. It is not so long ago that women were "churched" in Ireland, after having a baby. Apparently that has been replaced now by some other service. How equal is that treatment?
I signed the petition of course. But let's not throw the stone too quickly at others
Am I alone in finding a certain irony in the fact that Trocaire, an agency of the Catholic Church is promoting women's rights?
While I support unreservedly the aims of the campaign, I certainly think they should move out of the glass house before they start to throw stones.
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