Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Aoife Kavanagh (File photo) Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland
RTÉ

Mission to Prey reporter Aoife Kavanagh resigns from RTÉ

It follows the publication of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s report into a Prime Time Investigates programme which libelled a Catholic priest.

AOIFE KAVANAGH, THE reporter on the RTÉ Prime Time Investigates Mission to Prey programme that defamed Fr Kevin Reynolds has resigned this evening in the wake of a highly critical report of the programme, RTÉ said this evening.

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has this evening published its report into the programme which falsely claimed that Reynolds had fathered a child while working as missionary in Africa in the 1980s. RTÉ has been fined €200,000 for breaching the Broadcasting Act.

According to tweets from RTÉ colleague and news presenter Bryan Dobson on Twitter, Kavanagh said that she “does not accept many of the findings” in the BAI report “in relation to the manner in which I carried out my work”.

She has apologised to Reynolds “for the hurt caused to him” by the programme. Kavanagh had not been involved in RTÉ News and Current Affairs division since a High Court settlement last year in which RTÉ agreed to pay damages to Reynolds for libel.

The BAI report by former BBC executive, Anna Carragher, was highly critical of the process of making the programme including the attempts to corroborate allegations made against Reynolds and note-taking throughout the programme making process.

Carragher is also critical of Kavanagh’s failure to probe the allegations against Reynolds during an on-camera interview with the woman who claimed she had given birth to Reynolds’ child.

The investigator’s report said that Kavanagh’s doorstep interview with Reynolds “made statements which assumed guilty” and raised questions about the reporter’s compliance with guidelines.

Kavanagh has this evening resigned from the station after 16 years in which she worked in a number of roles including foreign correspondent. From Co Wexford, she previously presented on Morning Ireland and worked on Prime Time.

The Mission to Prey programme had been her first assignment with Prime Time Investigates, a programme format which has since been shelved following the defamatory broadcast last year.

Read: RTÉ fined €200k over breaches of broadcasting regulations in Mission to Prey

Read: ‘It’s more serious than I suspected’ – Rabbitte on BAI report

Read: ‘We will continue to learn from these grave errors’ – RTÉ Director General

Read: In full: The BAI report into RTÉ’s Mission to Prey programme

Your Voice
Readers Comments
40
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.