Elaine Loughlin: Ryan Tubridy saga another nail in coffin of traditional media

In a world of fake news and a growing threat from AI, traditional media needs to meet the high standards that it sets itself, or trust will be lost.

RTÉ Television Studios in Donnybrook, Dublin 4. 'The priority now for me and the priority for RTÉ should be rebuilding that trust,” says Culture Minister Cathering Martin. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

RTÉ’s shameful antics have put yet another nail in the coffin, not just of the State broadcaster, but of all traditional media.

At a time when all forms of journalism are under severe pressure, and at times attack, RTÉ has taken one of the most important elements of traditional media — public trust — and has scrunched it up in a ball before carelessly discarding it.

While many questions remain for Dee Forbes, the RTÉ board, and not least Ryan Tubridy, what is also required now is strong leadership from the responsible minister, Catherine Martin.

Culture Minister Catherine Martin speaks to the media on Friday. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Instead of immediately summoning the most senior heads in Montrose over to her office, the minister wanted to allow them the weekend to mull over things as RTÉ spirals further into crisis.

As statements came flooding in yesterday evening from the main protagonists in what is quickly becoming a dramatic soap opera, a last-minute change pushed the meeting with the minister forward to today.

This is the first major test for the Green Party minister, and her next moves will undoubtedly be scrutinised and could ultimately contribute to how RTÉ gets out of the current mess.

But up until now her approach seems to have been to ask very few questions when the issue was first flagged a number of months ago, and then to stall on a face-to-face meeting with the chairwoman of the RTÉ board, Siún Ní Raghallaigh.

One minister noted that Martin, who has remained relatively “under the radar” in this Coalition, will have to be front and centre on this issue.

This is the first test for her, the fact that it was flagged with her a few months ago, she will have to account for that.”

The source added that Martin is seen as “very cautious” and “would be very careful around how she operates”.

Perhaps this is the reason why she wanted to let the immediate heat go out of the controversy before calling RTÉ in to explain, and of course, there is merit in waiting for a fuller picture to emerge before pouncing.

Those in the Coalition are already analysing her approach.

“My instinct would be to get them in immediately to listen directly to what is actually happening here and get them in again on Monday for whatever extra information is needed,” another senior Coalition source said.

“The trouble is when you meet you are expected to have an outcome, when often simply eyeballing and telling them what more information you want is a reasonable thing to do.”

Dropped the ball?

In the coming days the minister, politicians, and the public will want to hear clear-cut explanations around how it came to be that Ryan Tubridy received more than €300,000 over five years, outside of RTÉ’s officially published books.

Ryan Tubridy pictured on the series finale of 'The Late Late Show'. Picture: Andres Poveda

Who knew, and who signed off on such an arrangement?

What we do know is the minister was made aware in March of this year that a fact-finding exercise had been commissioned in response to a payment queried by the auditors. She was told that the board would consider the findings of the review when complete.

When queried on this yesterday, Martin said this information had been communicated to her by her own department officials.

“What I was told in March is that an issue had arisen in the routine annual audit and they needed to do a fact-finding review to establish the facts around this," she said. 

That is all I knew in March and I waited then for the report.”

One Fianna Fáil TD said Martin had “dropped the ball” in not probing the issue further when it was first raised with her.

As two Oireachtas committees swiftly organised emergency meetings to ensure the full board of RTÉ, as well as now-suspended director general Forbes are brought in for questioning as soon as possible, the minister was holding back.

When pressed on why she has decided to wait until Monday to speak to the chairwoman of the board, she cited “scheduling issues”.

“I think it deserves time and it deserves to be face-to-face,” she told reporters on Friday morning. "I’m quite happy to bring the meeting forward if needs be, that’s not an issue.

“Unfortunately, today, I don’t think we’d get the time that it deserves due to scheduling issues."

But by late afternoon, time in the schedule had been found for a meeting on Saturday.

Demand for transparency

One thing that Martin has got right in dealing with her biggest ministerial challenge to date is her assertion that the Tubridy affair has now seriously dented, if not almost destroyed, public trust in an organisation that prides itself on being a credible and honest platform and source of news.

“I would like as much transparency as possible around this issue, because when trust is broken, you need transparency,” she said.

“What I am disappointed in is a lack of transparency. 

Public service broadcasting that does such good for society and democracy has been damaged. 

"The trust between the public and our national broadcaster, the trust between all the staff who work in RTÉ has been damaged. That is of concern, and I think the priority now for me and the priority for RTÉ should be rebuilding that trust.”

Writing on irishexaminer.com, vice chairwoman of the public accounts committee Catherine Murphy said the job of RTÉ, as a public service broadcaster, is to hold people in power, including herself as an elected politician, to account.

“It does this on behalf of you, the public, the people it is supposed to serve," Ms Murphy wrote. 

This monstrous deception has now seriously damaged its ability to do this important work.”

Trust in journalism

In a world of fake news and a growing threat from AI, traditional media has been able to point to the high standards that it sets itself and the rigorous oversight it must comply with.

When a story is published in the Irish Examiner, for example, it must be verified by several reliable sources; must comply with libel laws, and must adhere to the Press Council’s code of conduct. A journalist’s copy is discussed and dissected by news editors and is scrutinised by sub-editors.

The code of conduct centres on 10 principles which set parameters around a variety of areas, including truth and accuracy; fairness and honesty; privacy; respect for rights; as well as specific provisions when reporting on stories that involve children.

Members of the public can lodge a complaint to the press ombudsman if they have an issue with a story that is published.

The code itself stresses that “freedom of the press carries responsibilities” and “members of the press have a duty to maintain the highest professional and ethical standards.”

It is for these reasons and more, that when a person opens a newspaper or clicks onto the Irish Examiner website, they know that what they read can be trusted as a reliable source of news and information.

Trust is not something that you associate with an anonymous bot on Twitter or the many citizen journalists that operate online.

As the man at the heart of this controversy said in a statement: “At the centre of all of this is trust. The trust of colleagues in RTÉ and the trust of a great many people who listen to my show.”

Trust is not easily won, but it can be lost in an instant, and in this case, the repercussions of that loss will be felt far beyond RTÉ.