SINN FÉIN LEADER Mary Lou McDonald has defended her party’s proposal to commission an independent review of RTÉ’s news coverage of the conflict in Gaza by saying the public service broadcaster should be the “gold standard” of journalism.

The proposal, which was widely criticised after the party’s manifesto launch on Tuesday, suggests that an independent evaluation of RTÉ News’ coverage on the conflict in Gaza be carried out by human rights and journalism experts.

During an interview with RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Claire Byrne programme, McDonald said that neither she or Sinn Féin have ever filed a complaint with media regulator Coimisúin Na Meán about the broadcaster’s Gaza coverage.

When asked, the Sinn Féin leader could not name an individual programme which she believed needed to be reviewed but claimed that the review was not aimed at “any particular broadcast”.

McDonald added that the review, which could be in breach of the EU’s European Press Freedom Act over its commitments to maintain public service broadcasting editorial independence, was to make sure RTÉ was the “most-trusted source of information”.

Host Claire Byrne challenged McDonald’s reason, claiming that Sinn Féin were ‘pointing an ambiguous finger’ at journalists and editors who work at RTÉ News without backing up their claims with evidence.

McDonald rejected the charge, insisting that she had explained the reason for Sinn Féin’s proposed review. She claimed that the BBC had carried out a similar review.

Byrne corrected her, claiming she had preemptively fact-checked that claim and found that BBC News had conducted one internal review of its coverage and found that one report by one journalist had incorrectly attributed the responsibility of a bomb strike in Gaza.

Mary Lou McDonald speaking at an event in 2020 hosted by RTÉ. Alamy Alamy

Separately, BBC publicly publish every correction and clarification for every one of its broadcasts and pieces of content on its website. From the beginning of 2023 to now, there have been 12 amendments made to articles relating to the conflict in Gaza.

McDonald rejected that she and her party had made false claims relating to the BBC review, claiming that their remarks were in regards to a separate, independent review that the BBC carried out on its coverage of immigration. 

This report, commissioned independently by the Board of Management of the BBC – which is also independent of the government – found that BBC News’ coverage of immigration was ‘excellent’ but that there were some weaknesses on impartiality.

The review was not commissioned or called for by the British government. BBC’s board requested the review as part of its strategy for setting and monitoring editorial standards across the network.

McDonald said: “I’m not preempting the outcome of anything, and I’m not pointing the finger at anybody.

She added: “In a world where we have 24-7 news, where you have information of very great quality, and some of it, frankly, of dubious quality, everything that can be done to ensure that there is public confidence in the governance arrangements of RTÉ and of building trust and confidence in the quality of the information from RTÉ, I think that’s a good thing,” McDonald said.

On Wednesday, Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the Sinn Féin proposal was “chilling”. Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris issued similar criticism of the plan.

The Irish branch of the National Union of Journalists expressed “grave concern” over the proposal, claiming the move would set a “dangerous precedent”.