RtÉ Libel Raises 'Grave Issues', Irish Times, November 23, 2011

RtÉ Libel Raises 'Grave Issues'

Irish Times
November 23, 2011

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/1123/breaking19.html

Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte said there was considerable public concern and public disquiet about the case of Fr Reynolds.

Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte today described the issues surrounding RTÉ's defamation of the Fr Kevin Reynolds as "very grave" and that he did not recall "a lapse of this magnitude before in the history of RTÉ".

His comments came on foot of a Government-ordered investigation into the errors made in a Prime Time Investigates programme on Fr Kevin Reynolds last May.

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.

RTÉ yesterday also suspended the current affairs series for the rest of the year pending the outcome of the inquiry.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme today, Mr Rabbitte said there was considerable public concern and public disquiet about the case of Fr Reynolds.

"RTÉ plays a very unique role in public affairs and public life of our society. It has traditionally adhered to very high standards and it's in the interests of the broadcaster as well as in the public interest that questions which remain around the Fr Reynolds case be cleared up."

Yesterday, RTÉ's director general Noel Curran announced the current affairs programme would be suspended for the rest of the year and admitted its journalists had made "one of the gravest editorial mistakes ever made" in the national broadcaster.

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.

Mr Rabbitte yesterday charged the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's compliance committee to examine if RTÉ "met its statutory responsibilities around objectivity, impartiality and fairness".

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.

On the inquiry's terms of reference, Mr Rabbitte said the BAI would have work to do "in designing the process" as the inquiry represented what he described as "new territory" for the authority.

He said it was important that statutorily independent inquiry determines "the true facts of what happened and why it happened in this way".

Asked if he believed Fr Reynolds would have been treated differently if he were not a priest, Mr Rabbitte declined to give an opinion on the grounds that he did not want to pre-judge the inquiry's findings.

However, he said Fr Reynolds had the same rights as any other citizen and "the fact that he happens to be a priest does not give RTÉ or anyone else the right to traduce his reputation".

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 second inquiry 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.