BishopAccountability.org
	RtÉ's Double-Standard on Fr Reynolds Case By Michael Kelly Irish Catholic November 23, 2011 http://www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/rt%C3%A9%E2%80%99s-double-standard-fr-reynolds-case Fr Kevin Reynolds, the Galway-based parish priest and missionary who was grossly defamed by the State broadcaster RTÉ, must be feeling particular gratified this weekend. There are, however, grave questions for RTÉ, not least of which is who will be held accountable for irreparably damaging a man's good name and costing the hard-pressed licence fee payer what is believed to be a seven-figure sum in both compensation and legal costs. Fr Reynolds rightly won substantial damages on Thursday and an apology from the station for broadcasting a programme in May of this year which made the very serious allegation that he had raped a girl and fathered a child with her while working as a missionary in Kenya. As Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy observed in the High Court: in the environment in which we now live in it was hard to consider that anything more serious could be said about a cleric. RTÉ's behaviour in the entire case seems reckless in the extreme. Reporter Aoife Kavanagh door-stepped Fr Reynolds in his parish shortly after he celebrated First Holy Communion and accused him of the crime which he vehemently denied and offered to take a paternity test to prove his innocence. That offer was rejected and evidently undeterred by correspondence from Fr Reynolds' solicitor the broadcast went ahead and aired the allegation causing untold reputational damage to Fr Reynolds and emotional scars that he will undoubtedly carry for the rest of his life. Of course, great credit must go to the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) who were quick-off-the-mark in taking up Fr Reynolds' case and, indeed, are offering support to other priests who often would not have the means to defend themselves. Enormous questions now remain, particularly around the odd reaction from RTÉ senior management following the outcome of the case this week. Just hours after settling and agreeing to a lengthy apology in which the station accepts that Fr Reynolds was entirely innocent, RTÉ's head of corporate communications Kevin Dawson struck a defiant note and seemed to indicate that no-one would be held accountable. When asked if heads would roll he insisted "it is very difficult for a rolled head to learn anything." One can imagine the line being cleverly rolled out in the future every time a minister or senior politician is discovered to have made a dreadful mistake that costs the exchequer a fortune. One thing is for sure, it will be next-to-impossible for RTÉ journalists to expect any level of accountability when the institution they work for seems to imagine that accountability is for everyone else and not the State broadcaster. Mr Dawson went on to add that the libel of Fr Reynolds was "an exceptional error" and that "the best way to learn is to see how we would avert such errors in the future". Mr Dawson's comments appear to be evidence of double-standard where the station wants to occupy a privileged role as judge over all but judged by no-one. Could you imagine the furore from RTÉ if a politician (or indeed a bishop) shown to have failed dramatically responded by saying: "the best way to learn is to see how we would avert such errors in the future"? RTÉ presenter Pat Kenny said on his radio programme yesterday that the reporter involved, Ms Kavanagh "professionally has been truly humiliated in all of this, too". This is not about humiliating individuals. This is about accountability and facts. And Ms Kavanagh certainly has questions to answer as would be the case with any other journalist in a similar situation. She did untold damage to the reputation of an innocent man. Fr Eamon Aylward, executive secretary of the Irish Missionary Union (IMU) believes that the continuing presence of Ms Kavanagh on the Morning Ireland radio show after it was found she had defamed Fr Kevin Reynolds is "unfair and unjust". There is, as yet, no indication how RTÉ intends to learn lessons. In the first instance there needs to be a thorough review of how this case happened. How was such a serious allegation allowed to be broadcast at a time when it would have been easy to have tested the veracity of the claims by way of a simple paternity test? What checks-and-balances was Ms Kavanagh subject to in such a large and well-funded organisation? Who makes the final decision to publish such a serious allegation? Is it possible that among some journalists the attitude towards the Church and priests has become so hostile that any allegation is believed and normal standards of checks and balances are ignored? RTÉ must explain to the public what went wrong in this case and who was responsible. There should be a piece-by-piece investigation of the events that led up to the dreadful incident and to report on why RTÉ refused to accept Fr Reynolds' offer to undergo a paternity test. There are also questions about how the allegation was put to Fr Reynolds by RTÉ. As columnist Noel Whelan notes in The Irish Times this morning door-stepping Fr Reynolds "in the aftermath of a Holy Communion ceremony is something that could only have been approved at a very high level in RTÉ. "The details of how, when and by whom this ultimate decision was made needs also to be put in the public domain," Mr Whelan believes – he is correct. The case of Fr Kevin Reynolds has also struck fear in to priests around the country who feel that they too could have their reputations destroyed by a false allegation which is subsequently reported in the media. RTÉ could do wider society a massive favour by, in future reporting of clerical abuse, strongly underlining the fact that the actual number of priests who have been accused of abuse is around 4pc. That, of course, is too many, but it is worrying that a recent survey found that many Irish people believe that many people believe that over 20pc of priests had abused. When people perpetrate violence in the name of Islam great care and attention is rightly taken by responsible journalists and media outlets to underline that this is a minority and an aberration of Islam. The same rules should apply in the reporting of clerical abuse. As Archbishop Diarmuid Martin observed recently, "the horror we all experience at the dreadful reality of abuse in no ways justifies such injustice to the entire body of priests in this diocese and in this country".
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