Broadcaster not asked to waive legal privilege, says chief

INVESTIGATION:RTÉ WAS never asked to waive its legal privilege during the investigation into the Prime Time Investigates programme which libelled Fr Kevin Reynolds, its chief executive, Noel Curran, has revealed.

Earlier this month when it published the report into the Mission to Prey programme, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland said it was a source of regret that RTÉ did not choose to waive its claim to privilege over the solicitor/client relationship between itself and its in-house legal department.

But yesterday the authority’s chief executive, Michael O’Keeffe, said RTÉ was never formally asked to waive this privilege during the investigation by former BBC Northern Ireland executive Anna Carragher. He said this was Ms Carragher’s decision.

Given that RTÉ had been asked to make all information available, it would have been better if privilege had been waived, he told the Oireachtas Committee on Communications.

Mr Curran confirmed the station was never asked to waive privilege. If it had been asked to do this, it would have considered the request, he said.

He pointed out that legal staff were involved in the planning in the weeks coming up to the date of broadcast and were party to the final meeting that gave the go-ahead for transmission.

Legal advisers don’t tell programme-makers whether to put out a programme or not, he said. Their job was to advise on the risks involved.

Mr Curran said if secret filming were banned, there would be no programmes such as the one on the nursing home scandal in Leas Cross. Sometimes it was necessary to invade a person’s privacy in the making of a programme but first you had to weigh up the public interest involved.

The circumstances in which secret filming or doorstepping were allowed had to be absolutely exceptional. “You can’t do it unless you have an absolute fear that they won’t make themselves available.”

The Mission to Prey programme has attracted three legal actions. Fr Reynolds settled his libel action last year, but Kenyan bishop Philip Sulumeti has begun proceedings over the inclusion in the programme of a character reference he wrote for Fr Reynolds, which he claims damages his good name.

In addition, the Tipperary-born former Archbishop of Benin, Richard Burke, is suing over claims that he had sex with an underage girl. He accepts he had a consensual sexual relationship with an adult woman.

Mr Collins said he was satisfied the authority’s investigation of the programme was thorough and comprehensive and had access to sufficient material to be able to determine the issue.

Labour Senator John Whelan disagreed, saying the broadcasting authority’s report was thorough but far from comprehensive. Its remit was too narrow and should have taken in the entire Mission to Prey programme, he said.

He also questioned RTÉ’s level of co-operation with the investigation, in particular its failure to waive legal privilege.