Watchdog will not reopen RTÉ inquiry

THE BROADCASTING watchdog has declined to reopen its investigation into the treatment of businessman Sean Gallagher on an RTÉ presidential debate programme.

The compliance committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) said last night it had not received any evidence to cause it to review the decision it issued last week, when it upheld a complaint by Mr Gallagher against RTÉ.

However, the committee said it would consider the matter further “in the event that any direct evidence emerges”.

At a scheduled meeting of the committee yesterday, it discussed the allegation made by an audience member at the debate that RTÉ staff had prepared a “hostile” question for him to put to Mr Gallagher.

In a statement, the authority said the committee noted that RTÉ had started a full editorial review of its programme-making practices.

RTÉ would be asked to communicate the findings of this to the committee, which would then consider these and whether any further action was required. RTÉ said it would make the findings of its review available to the BAI.

Last week, the committee upheld Mr Gallagher’s original complaint that he had been unfairly treated on the programme, but said the matter wasn’t serious enough to merit a full investigation.

It found RTÉ had made “no apparent effort” to verify the accuracy of a bogus tweet broadcast during the programme, which put Mr Gallagher under increased pressure to explain his past links to Fianna Fáil.

After the new allegation by the audience member last weekend, Mr Gallagher wrote to Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte urging him to consider a full investigation so that “unanswered questions” could be examined fully.

Mr Rabbitte forwarded the complaint to the authority but said RTÉ should deal directly with the questions raised.

The matter was discussed briefly at Cabinet yesterday but was not part of the formal agenda.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said it was of critical importance for the good of the country and of civil life that the national broadcaster adhered to the strict requirements of the Act that set it up. This required it to show fairness, objectivity and impartiality in its dealings with our democratic institutions.

However, Mr Kenny stressed that the complaints process overseen by the broadcasting authority was entirely independent.

The matter will be discussed at tomorrow’s meeting of the Oireachtas communications committee, but witnesses from RTÉ and the authority will not be called before the committee until after the report about the Prime Time Investigates programmes about Fr Kevin Reynolds is completed.

Chairman Andrew Doyle said the committee would be writing to the chairman and director general of RTÉ to express its concern over the fact that programmes had triggered two investigations by the authority in quick succession.

“We’ll be looking for assurances that the proper practices are in place to ensure things like this don’t happen again,” said Mr Doyle. He said there was no point in hearing about the “tweetgate” controversy at this point, as executives would only have to be called to appear again after the Reynolds report was published.

In the Seanad yesterday, Independent senator Ronan Mullen claimed Mr Gallagher had been set up. Calling for a further debate on media standards, he claimed Mr Rabbitte had a tendency to “let RTÉ off the hook”.

Yesterday the committee also made a recommendation in response to a separate investigation into the Prime TimeInvestigates programme on Fr Kevin Reynolds. In the programme, Fr Reynolds was falsely accused of sexually assaulting a teenager and fathering a child by her.