RTÉ’S FLAGSHIP investigative journalism series has been suspended for the rest of the year after the station’s boss admitted its journalists had made “one of the gravest editorial mistakes ever made” in the national broadcaster.
Director general Noel Curran’s frank admission came on foot of a Government-ordered investigation into the errors made in a Prime Time Investigates programme on Fr Kevin Reynolds last May.
Mr Curran signally failed to rule out the possibility of resignations over the programme and said recommendations would be brought forward to the next RTÉ board meeting in December.
The Cabinet yesterday approved an independent inquiry into why RTÉ broadcast the Mission to Prey programme, which wrongly accused Fr Reynolds of raping a minor and having a child by her while working as a missionary in Kenya 30 years ago. The investigation, the second into the programme, is expected to be completed within two months.
The decision was taken on foot of a recommendation by Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte, who did not consult RTÉ beforehand.
Mr Rabbitte said the public had a right to know why such an “egregious error” had occurred. He has charged the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s compliance committee to examine if RTÉ “met its statutory responsibilities around objectivity, impartiality and fairness”.
A Government spokesman said the decision had been taken in view of “general disquiet” about the issue.
Rejecting any inference of undue interference with RTÉ, he said: “There is extensive public disquiet about the case and it involves the national broadcaster. Taken together, this provides the basis for the decision that was taken.”
In its decision, the Cabinet invoked previously unused legislation, which allows the authority’s compliance committee to appoint an investigator to inquire into how a programme was made.
It will have the power to compel witnesses to attend and to provide all records relevant to the making of the programme.
Mr Curran promised full co-operation with the BAI but said he wasn’t personally involved in the decisions that led to the programme.
The Prime Time Investigates series due to be aired in December has been suspended pending the outcome of RTÉ’s internal review and also a review by Press Ombudsman John Horgan.
The BAI’s eight-member compliance committee, headed by NUI Maynooth professor Chris Morash, includes Irish Times columnist John Waters, who has written in trenchant terms about the RTÉ programme and who believes there is an anti-Catholic bias in the Irish media.
The compliance committee, which usually adjudicates on complaints from the public, will be able to choose from within their own ranks or a suitably qualified outsider to hold the inquiry.
It must report within two months.