Protest in Northern Ireland 1968 - 1969

Programme Outline

The programme looks at the way the past can become garbled. People who make television news have considerable power over the story they tell because they choose which words and pictures are put together, after the event has been filmed.

The same event, a civil rights’ march in Londonderry on 5 October 1968, has been told in different way. RTE (Radio Telefis Eireann) the public service broadcaster in Ireland, based in Dublin, provided the pictures. And yet, RTE, UTV (Ulster Television) and ITN edited the same footage in different ways, producing a different slant to the story.

The programme also looks at how a four-day march from Belfast to Londonderry was covered. A Dutch television crew followed the march from beginning to end. Their camera got right among the marchers and the programme makers put the story into a religious context.