Broadcasting inquiry - A move to rebuild RTÉ credibility

EVERY media organisation, this one included, has had to face the awful consequences of libelling individuals.

Some cases are high profile, others less so, but they all have common threads.

They are how our judicial system affords individuals an opportunity to protect their reputation if they have been wrongly accused by newspapers or broadcasters.

They are how our society punishes organisations that, for whatever reason, publish false, reputation-destroying allegations about an innocent person.

Though very much secondary to an individual’s right to their good name and protection from inaccurate, libellous allegations, the great financial cost and the loss of credibility for the organisations involved ensures that all media impose utterly uncompromising standards on themselves to ensure that everything they publish or broadcast is true and accurate.

The appalling behaviour being uncovered at the Leveson Inquiry may make it difficult to believe this but the great majority of the Irish media observe high standards in this area. It is not self-congratulatory or delusional to say that, just a statement of reality. The consequences of not doing so are so great, so traumatic and destructive that not to do so would be reckless.

That is why RTÉ’s decision, last May, to broadcast Mission to Prey and the false and terrible allegations it contained about Fr Kevin Reynolds is so very perplexing and worrying.

Last week, recognising the scale of its error, the broadcaster reached a settlement with Fr Reynolds and made the inquiry announced last evening all but unavoidable. Great pain and hurt was caused to Fr Reynolds, his family and friends, but his good name has been restored and his innocence vindicated.

However, RTÉ’s reputation and integrity has taken a beating and urgent steps must be taken to restore them. Our democracy cannot afford to have the credibility of our public sector broadcaster questioned.

This is tragic because Prime Time has done more than any other team of journalists to shine a light into the darkest corners of society.

From the programmes that led to the establishment of the Beef Tribunal almost 20 years ago to those that uncovered the institutionalised physical and sexual abuse of children over many decades Prime Time has served this society in an exemplary, sometimes heroic, way.

RTÉ’s response has been unfortunately inadequate and, sadly, has given those with self-serving agendas an opportunity to undermine it. Already there have been disingenuous calls for a pound of flesh, as if one calamitous error of judgement could be equated with decades of political mismanagement or decades of collusion with a tiny minority of clerics who were aggressive paedophiles.

Nevertheless, the media cannot be exempt from the standards expected of public figures.

Apart from the trauma to all of those involved, most especially to Fr Reynolds, there was never a time when this society needed a strong and credible public service broadcaster more than it does now.

Yesterday’s instruction from Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte that the Broadcasting Authority determine whether RTÉ had met its statutory responsibilities around objectivity, impartiality and fairness in this instance is a welcome first step in rebuilding that essential credibility.