BishopAccountability.org

Meeting Not about Firing RtÉ Board - Coveney

By Marie O'Halloran
Irish Times
May 7, 2012

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0507/1224315686858.html

THE MEETING between Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte and the RTÉ board tomorrow should not be turned into a sacking issue, said Simon Coveney.

The Minister for Agriculture said Mr Rabbitte would come to Cabinet with "some views and recommendations" after the meeting. It follows publication of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's investigation report into the Mission to Prey documentary, which libelled Fr Kevin Reynolds.

"Legally the position is clear," Mr Coveney said. "The board and board members ultimately have responsibility for editorial management and programming in RTÉ." But "that isn't to suggest that sacking the board will solve all problems".

Mr Coveney said on RTÉ radio: "I don't think people should build this up into whether or not the board is going to be sacked."

The board had to reassure the Minister they were taking the recommendations on board and putting in place structures to ensure such mistakes "won't happen again".

"If they can't reassure him of that, well, then, I think the consequences are obvious."

Later, on RTÉ's This Week programme, chairman of the BAI Bob Collins said it was "shocking that this item was approached as it was. It was astonishing that it was allowed to be broadcast".

The National Union of Journalists raised concerns that no representative of RTÉ's legal team was interviewed during the investigation.

Mr Collins said the authority "expressed regret" in its statement of findings that RTÉ had "not chosen to waive the privilege that exists between solicitor and client". He said the "the investigating officer was told by RTÉ it would not waive its claim to privilege". He said the public broadcaster "will want to consider carefully its approach to legal proceedings in future circumstances".

One of the "key tests" was the duration of the breach of statutory obligations, which extended "until the formal apologies were made".

It "must have been clear to RTÉ, if not on the day of transmission of the programme but immediately thereafter, that there was a real danger that an injustice had been done. It took a long time before any such realisation seemed to dawn."

The report said "nothing in RTÉ's arrangement was able to capture this problem before it went on air despite the fact that it engaged the attention of some of the most senior people in the organisation".

He criticised the leaking of the report, whose findings were published last month in The Irish Times.

He said "a public authority should be able to conduct its business and receive papers without those papers being publicly available".

Press Ombudsman Prof John Horgan, who prepared an internal report for RTÉ, said, "Journalists have got to learn continually to distinguish between facts and beliefs. Somebody who believed something to be true told it to a journalist who believed the person who told them was trustworthy. That is evidence of a belief, not a fact."

DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND: PRIEST 'JUST WANTS TO GET ON WITH HIS LIFE'

THE SOLICITOR representing Fr Kevin Reynolds has said the Galway-based priest has never sought revenge over the Prime Time Investigates programme that falsely claimed he had sexually abused a young girl and fathered her child while working as a missionary in Kenya.

Speaking on RTÉ radio on Saturday, the priest's legal representative Robert Dore also said the €200,000 fine imposed on RTÉ by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) following the libellous Mission to Prey programme reflected the seriousness of the lapse in editorial standards at the station.

On Friday the BAI published its report into the programme, in which it was heavily critical of journalism standards involved in the broadcast.

Speaking on the Marian Finucane programme, which was presented by Claire Byrne, Mr Dore said Fr Reynolds was anxious to get on with his life as a parish priest and had no desire for revenge.

While Mr Dore said he had discussed the BAI report with Fr Reynolds on several occasions since its publication, the priest was more focused on his Communion Mass in Ahascragh, Co Galway, which took place on Saturday morning.

"Fr Kevin is not a vindictive person. He hasn't a vindictive bone in his body. He . . . is not out for revenge," Mr Dore said. "He has drawn a line in the sand and wants to get on with his life, but the unfortunate reality is that this is the story that won't go away."

Mr Dore said it was "sad to see" that RTÉ reporter Aoife Kavanagh had resigned, but suggested she had no other option given the findings. He said Anna Carragher, who conducted the BAI investigation, had produced a "considered" report.

The Minister for Communications, Pat Rabbitte, has said RTÉ faces a major challenge in re-establishing trust with the Irish people. He is planning to meet RTÉs board tomorrow.




.


Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.