Gallagher: RTÉ’s on-air drama won out over truth

The defeated presidential candidate, Sean Gallagher has claimed RTÉ’s “desire to manufacture on-air drama won out over the truth” during the Frontline debate which derailed his election campaign.

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland upheld his complaint over a tweet read out during the Frontline debate on Oct 24. During the programme, Pat Kenny incorrectly claimed the tweet was from the official “Martin McGuinness for President” campaign.

Mr Gallagher argued that broadcasting a tweet which was incorrectly attributed was “indicative of a lack of objectivity and of partiality”, and that the Frontline, coupled with the following day’s Today With Pat Kenny radio show, was in breach of the fairness, objectivity and impartiality required under the Broadcasting Act.

During the Frontline, Mr Gallagher denied a claim by Sinn Féin candidate Martin McGuinness that he had called to a businessman’s house to collect a €5,000 cheque for Fianna Fáil.

Later in the programme, Mr Kenny told him: “On the Martin McGuinness for President Twitter account, Sinn Féin are saying they are going to produce the man who gave you the cheque for five grand.”

The official McGuinness campaign later tweeted it had no comment to make on the “donation issue”.

The BAI agreed with Mr Gallagher that RTÉ’s failure to provide clarification on the “provenance” of the first tweet was unfair. It also said that while the second tweet did not directly address the content of the first, “it did raise questions about its provenance and, by reasonable inference, the accuracy of the initial tweet”.

The BAI said that while the content of the first tweet turned out to be accurate, RTÉ had a responsibility to verify its contents and provenance.

Last night, Mr Gallagher claimed RTÉ “consciously withheld” the second tweet which, he pointed out, was received 26 minutes before the end of the broadcast. He said the ruling confirmed his view there was an “institutional failure” by RTÉ.

RTÉ director general Noel Curran apologised to Mr Gallagher and said RTÉ “should have verified the origin of the tweet, and should have broadcast the fact that its provenance was in question”.