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	RTE Lashes out at Critics over Prime Time Priest Fiasco By Michael Lavery The Herald December 16, 2011 http://www.herald.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/rte-lashes-out-at-critics-over-prime-time-priest-fiasco-2966151.html RTE today hit back at its critics saying it was fully accountable and is co-operating fully with a statutory inquiry into the Fr Kevin Reynolds affair. Clare Duignan, managing director of RTE radio, said in a letter to a national newspaper today that any suggestion that regulation is less "onerous" for RTE is misleading. Yesterday, the RTE Board issued a statement after its review meeting into the Prime Time Investigates programme, Mission To Prey, and said it had considered the serious issues presented by "this defamatory broadcast". The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland had requested that all of RTE's investigations and recommendations should be kept confidential until the BAI's own statutory inquiry is completed in early 2012. The Board meeting heard from the Director General, Noel Curran, and Professor John Horgan, it said. "Pending completion of the BAI inquiry, RTE is to adopt and implement specific recommendations made by Professor Horgan for improved editorial processes and safeguards around investigative journalism programming," it said. "These will be interim internal steps and will be reviewed in light of the BAI conclusions, once that statutory process is completed and all recommendations can be published." Meanwhile, Clare Duignan, replying to a newspaper article which claimed that RTE was not "subject to the same level of scrutiny by the regulator" as independent broadcaster, denied the claims. "RTE's performance, specifically its delivery on public service commitments, is reviewed annually by the BAI," she said. RTE was also subject to a second regulator in ComReg. "It is in addition the only commercial semi-State body subject to Freedom of Information access," Ms Duignan wrote. She also said that with the recession, pressure within the commercial sector is inevitable and has many causes, "but laying the blame at RTE's door is misguided". income "Given the population size of this country, a licence fee alone will never be sufficient to fund the level and quality of public service media that Irish people have come to expect and so RTE is mandated to pursue commercial income to be used along with licence fee income to fund our activities," she said. "Reductions in public funding in RTE in recent years have increased RTE's reliance on commercial income. "Despite this, RTE is placing more emphasis than ever on public service delivery while, also seeking to reach out to commercial colleagues." She also said that RTE is and should be a leader in digital radio and RTE Radio would "warmly welcome" commercial colleagues to the digital project. "Public funds do not fully resource RTE's public service activities," she said. "Hobbling RTE could bring short term wins for the commercial sector, but the loss of a strong, accountable public service broadcaster would be regretted by generations to come," she added. "Our successes will speak for themselves. When we are flawed, we will be accountable," Ms Duignan said. Contact: mlavery@herald.ie
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