Cocaine controversy sees RTÉ halt 'anonymous source' shows

RTÉ is to halt documentaries relying on anonymous sources after an internal probe criticised a programme that claimed a top politician took cocaine.

The RTÉ Authority today announced the decision to put factual programmes reliant on unnamed contributors on hold after the journalist behind the drugs claim was unable to publicly substantiate the report.

The controversial drugs allegation was made in a book and television series called 'High Society', though RTÉ defended the efforts to highlight drug abuse.

The freelance journalist who wrote the book at the centre of the controversy, Justine Delaney Wilson, came under pressure to name the politician after she later claimed the figure in question was a Government minister.

Pressure grew over the issue when politicians demanded the allegation be substantiated, but the journalist later said she had wiped a recorded interview to protect the person in question.

Managing director of RTÉ Television Noel Curran last month ordered an internal report into the controversial programme based on the book.

Today the RTÉ Authority acknowledged shortcomings, but defended the attempt to raise the issue of widespread cocaine use in Ireland.

Mary Finan, chairwoman of the authority, said: "This series was commissioned to focus attention on the issue of middle-class cocaine abuse in Ireland.

"The Authority believes it has achieved this objective and notes that this view is shared by a number of experts who work directly with drug abusers."

"While acknowledging some shortcomings in RTÉ's editorial processes, the authority accepts that the measures being put in place, with some already initiated, should ensure that such shortcomings will not recur.

"We are satisfied that, following what was a wide-ranging inquiry, this issue was confined to one series and is not endemic in RTÉ Factual."

The authority revealed the report's key findings, which included:

* RTÉ's established editorial controls were not sufficiently exercised in the case of the 'High Society' programme. This was the first, and to date only, documentary series that RTÉ Factual has undertaken in this style, which relied heavily on dramatisations of anonymous source material;

* RTÉ accepts assurances from the book's publishers and their lawyers that they know the identities of all those interviewed and stand over the book's veracity;

* A greater level of access to, and interrogation, of the source material should have been sought by RTÉ.

It is now recommended that a number of changes be made to programme commissioning procedures and internal editorial practices.

Among the recommendations endorsed by the authority are:

* RTÉ Television is to put on hold the making of any factual programming which is largely dependent on anonymous contributors and re-enactments, pending a discussion of whether such programmes are appropriate in factual programming;

* New guidelines will be introduced for any programme that relies heavily on an external publication as its primary source;

* Workshops for programme-makers on RTÉ's will be accelerated.

RTÉ said that as Ireland’s public service broadcaster it plays a key role in informing public debate on key issues such as the drugs debate.

The RTÉ Authority today said: “'High Society' has stimulated a national discussion on the damage that cocaine use and abuse is causing our society.”

The body added that it “expressed its support for RTÉ’s continuing role in focusing attention on difficult, and at times, unpalatable stories that it believes are in the public interest”.