Editorial Board to Vet Investigative Programmes

By Ronan McGreevy
Irish Times
April 4, 2012

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0404/1224314347433.html?via=rel

GUIDELINES: RTÉ STAFF involved in major investigative programmes will have to make a detailed submission to a new editorial board before transmission.

The board will evaluate programmes similar to the Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme at least seven days in advance of being broadcast.

The five members of the board are Michael Good, the managing editor of RTÉ News; Jim Jennings, the head of RTÉ Radio 1; Steve Carson, the director of programmes at RTÉ Television; Eleanor Bleahene from RTÉ's solicitor's office and Peter Feeney, the head of broadcast compliance.

They will be asked to assess the quality of the report, the reliability of the evidence assembled and whether or not the programme is in the public interest.

The guidelines stress that all those working in current affairs should familiarise themselves with the hierarchy in the organisation in case there are problems with a potential broadcast.

The guidelines arose out of an internal report completed last December into RTÉ's editorial structures in the wake of the Prime Time Investigates programme. They were commissioned before RTÉ was embroiled in fresh controversy over the so-called Tweetgate broadcast on the Frontline programme.

The guidelines also state that the director general should become involved if the relevant managing director in news wants to go ahead with a programme despite legal advice.

Speaking yesterday, the director general, Noel Curran, said the previous editorial guidelines had been inadequate, especially in relation to the Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme.

Those inadequacies will be revealed when the independent report into the programme is published.

"There were ambiguities in our guidelines, where people were not totally clear as to what approval they needed before certain things happened," he told RTÉ's Drivetime programme.

The guidelines stress that anybody who believes their programme could have legal consequences should contact the legal department at the "earliest moment".

RTÉ staff have also been told they can only "doorstep" potential interview subjects after having made an appointment for an interview with the individual or organisation involved, and that it must be approved in advance by the "relevant senior editorial figure".