IRELAND
Irish Independent
By Mark Hilliard
Saturday May 05 2012
RTE reporter Aoife Kavanagh resigned last night after a damning report was published into the defamatory ‘Prime Time Investigates’ programme.
She also apologised to Fr Kevin Reynolds, the priest she wrongly accused of fathering a child with a woman in Kenya.Fr Reynolds received an estimated €1m in a libel settlement last year after being falsely accused of rape in the ‘Mission To Prey’ programme.Ms Kavanagh’s decision to quit came after the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) released a report that severely criticised RTE.The state broadcaster was fined €200,000. It claimed last night it was introducing sweeping reforms. In the first investigation of its kind, the BAI probed how the programme was put together. It found “one of the most significant errors made in broadcasting history”.
The report also found:
– Secret filming of Fr Reynolds and a doorstep interview was an unreasonable breach of privacy.
– Credibility of key sources was not sufficiently questioned.
– RTE’s legal affairs department became involved very late in the process.
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