RTÉ begins probe into drug abuse documentary

RTÉ last night launched an internal investigation into a controversial two-part documentary on cocaine abuse, following conflicting accounts about the existence of a taped interview with a minister.

On a day of embarrassing developments for the national broadcaster, its claims that no audio existed of a minister admitting to regular cocaine usage were last night contradicted by the documentary’s presenter Justine Delaney Wilson.

In a statement, the author and presenter of the High Society, said a digital recording had been made for her use only and was not to be disclosed to any third parties. “I have not retained the digital recording,” she added.

An internal report into the production and commissioning will conclude by the end of the week, RTÉ indicated last night.

Questions about the existence of a tape have prompted contradictory statements from the book’s publishers Gill and Macmillan and RTÉ in recent weeks.

Yesterday, in a highly charged interview on RTÉ’s News at One, Kevin Dawson, commissioning editor of factual programmes with RTÉ Television, said he had never heard Ms Delaney Wilson’s comments last month wherein she claimed to have taped the interview.

“We have never believed there was a recording of the minister and therefore I find, and I would have no doubt the publisher finds, that replayed remark of a number of weeks back surprising. I will be quite upfront about that,” he said.

Instead, RTÉ relied on contemporaneous notes made available to Ms

Delaney Wilson’s publishers and to their lawyer as the basis to the claim in the documentary, he said.

“I have her account of how the meeting with the politician was set up, how it was conducted, how it played out and possibly why the politician was interested in doing this. I have to keep those details confidential as I do the identity. They rang true for me,” he said.

Questions would have to be asked about Ms Delaney Wilson’s two different accounts, said Mr Dawson.

However, junior minister with responsibility for drugs, Pat Carey, accused RTÉ of “verging on the irresponsible” in the way it has dealt with the issue. He reiterated his call for the broadcaster to hand over any material relating to the claims to the gardaíi for investigation.

“Either the recordings do or don’t exist and contradictory statements aren’t helping at all,” he said.

“If any other media organisation equivocated to the extent that RTÉE has done so in the last number of days and indeed weeks, I think the hounds of journalism would be baying after them.”

He further accused RTÉ of glamorising and trivialising drugs abuse.