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THE DIRECTOR GENERAL of RTÉ, Noel Curran, has said that the final report from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland in to the Prime Time Investigates Mission to Prey programme does “not make easy reading” for the broadcaster.
Reacting to the publication of the report by former BBC executive Anna Carragher which found that there had been a “significant failure of editorial and managerial controls within RTÉ”, Curran said: “We are not proud of the picture presented in the findings.”
The State broadcaster was fined €200,000 by the Authority which can fine a maximum of €250,000. The report found that there had been serious breaches of the Broadcasting Act.
Curran said that an investigation of “personnel matters” arising from the programme, which is being led by Dr Maurice Hayes, is continuing and will conclude shortly.
The report is critical of programme makers Aoife Kavanagh, Brian Pairceir and Ken O’Shea. Pairceir and O’Shea have currently been transferred out of the news and current affairs department in RTÉ. Aoife Kavanagh resigned from RTÉ this evening. Producer of Mission to Prey, Mark Lappin, now lives in London and works for CNN, while former Head of News at RTÉ, Ed Mulhall, took a retirement package from the broadcaster earlier this year.
Curran added: “Our team in current affairs will continue to develop investigative programming and we will announce the format for this programming in the Autumn.”
RTÉ accepted the findings and said that the defamation of Fr Kevin Reynolds was one of the most significant errors in its broadcasting history, acknowledging that the allegations that Reynolds fathered a child while working as a missionary in Kenya should never have been broadcast.
Curran insisted that a “a great deal has changed in recent months at RTÉ and more will change as we embed the new structues”.
We know we have fine people with great skills and that the way this programme was presented to our viewers was not representative of the excellence for which our journalists, producers and editors have been rightly praised.With that knowledge, and with the commitment that I have seen in recent months within the organisation to work hard to regain the public trust that was lost as a result of this programme, I am confident that we can get past this difficult time.
Curran said that since April, over 500 RTÉ staff have undergone a training programme on the station’s new journalism guidelines and 600 in all will have completed this by the middle of May.
The chairman of RTÉ, Tom Savage said that the station was doing a “very great deal to restore faith in our journalism”. He continued:
The best external, independent advice has shaped our response. The Director General, with the support of the Board of RTÉ, has introduced comprehensive reforms in editorial structures, in management, and in operations. Journalists, editors, and programme makers are being trained in new editorial guidelines.
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‘We will continue to learn from these grave errors’ – RTÉ Director General”
You wont be around to learn from these grave errors, if the t.v licence fee payers have their way.
Is it time to shut down (the very expensive) RTE?
You cannot shut down the national broadcaster. There are many reasons why, public service being the main reason. A lot of what is broadcast will never be commercially viable in the private sector but is in the public interest. There are also various dooms day reasons scenarios in which we need one. If there was a war, major disaster or a number of other reasons that the government need to keep the public informed an have the platform to do this.
But I can agree with the need to streamline it and make it more economical, moving it away from the high paying civil service style organisation it is/was. But for the sake of our sanity, we do not want a TV industry that runs on the cheap, budget, lash it out model. Rte does a lot of things wrong but it also does a lot of very good programming that wouldn’t be possible in the private sector over here..
Sorry did the government just fine rte 200,000 of taxpayers money? Firstly that’s not even a years worth of Joe Duffy and secondly don’t they get their money from the government anyway.
Why is Noel Curran still director general? His position is completely untenable! A mistake of this magnitude can have no other outcome! He’s either stupid or incompetent! I
You will learn nothing from this RTE, you are a shoddy operation run by a very self-interest driven closed shop! You destroyed a mans name but would never make the same mistake with one of your own! I have no love for the Catholic church, just honest decent values of which you hold few!
It’s a crap station with a sub standard programme, so cut off the head of the snake
They don’t learn – Derek Mooney should be Head Of Marketing for the Northern Ireland Enterprise Board as he has done everything in his power to promote it since he started in RTE( a taxpayer funded station). He has admitted on air to shopping fortnightly for food, clothes, household goods, and furniture. I am surprised the advertisers keep advertising with the station as they actively promote job losses through shopping over the border. I hope when he needs a Garda, Fire Brigade, Hospital or Ambulance he rings the people whose jobs he supports. I wish he would get a job up north also as he earns too much down here from his different income streams – 1 man 1 job. Derek has how many different shows ? His greedyness and disrespect for the people who pay his wages is insulting and RTE have to have some responsibility in appointing him to other more lucrative roles in Montrose.
what fine for dropping the ball on the banking and property bubbles? lazy journalism won’t go away with a few trainings and a couple of resignations
Why is their no uproar about this. A man was accused of being a sex offender it might have being anybody thats reading this article. Mr.Noel Curran I call on you to resign.
How did he keep his job
Noel, I know something that you don’t.
Further details by searching in Google for ‘Windle stops swindle’
Cheers
Super Grass
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