IRELAND
The Irish Times
PAUL CULLEN, Political Staff
THE BROADCASTING Authority of Ireland has defended the involvement of its chairman, former RTÉ director general Bob Collins, in assessing the penalty to be imposed on the State broadcaster over the Fr Kevin Reynolds libel affair.
The authority also defended itself yesterday against criticism by Fr Reynolds’s solicitor, Robert Dore, who said the priest should have been contacted during the investigation ordered by the BAI into his libelling in a Prime Time Investigates programme.
A spokeswoman said Mr Collins was appointed as an independent chair of the regulator and would in his daily work have “all kinds of responsibilities” affecting RTÉ.
Mr Collins, who worked in RTÉ for 28 years and was director general for six years, wasn’t asked and did not offer to absent himself from the board discussion this week on the investigation ordered by the compliance committee of the authority into the Mission to Prey programme broadcast last May, she said.
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