Complaints over on-air treatment of priest upheld

Two complaints against RTÉ’s Liveline have been upheld by broadcasting watchdog the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) after it found a Catholic priest had been harassed following a magazine article linking the Taoiseach with King Herod.

Both complaints relate to the Mar 5 edition of Liveline, in which a listener complained about an editorial in the religious magazine Alive! on the abortion debate, written by the magazine’s editor, Fr Brian McKevitt.

The on-air row was triggered when a listener, named Joan, said she felt an article in Alive! linking Taoiseach Enda Kenny to Herod was “particularly nasty” and was “anonymous abuse and a form of bullying”.