The solicitor for Fr Kevin Reynolds has described as “extraordinary” the fact that neither he nor his client were involved in the report into the Prime Time Investigates programme Mission to Prey.
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) commissioned former BBC Northern Ireland controller Anna Carragher to carry out an investigation on its behalf into the programme, which falsely accused Fr Reynolds of raping a minor while working as a missionary priest in Kenya and having a child by her.
RTÉ was forced to apologise and pay a substantial out-of-court settlement to Fr Reynolds who is the parish priest of Ahascragh, Co Galway.
The BAI accepted the report’s findings on Monday and are sending copies of it to RTÉ along with details of sanctions, if any, that it intends to impose on the broadcaster. The BAI can impose fines of up to €250,000 for breaches of the code relating to journalistic ethics and fairness.
RTÉ, which didn’t defend the programme on either of these grounds, yesterday announced the setting up of an external investigation board, chaired by former Northern Ireland ombudsman Maurice Hayes, to make recommendations about RTÉ personnel involved in the programme.
Solicitor Robert Dore said today he believed at a “basic level” that Fr Reynolds, who was the injured party, should have given evidence to the investigation into how the programme came to be made.
As a solicitor he maintained that he should have been asked to give evidence as to how RTÉ handled legal correspondence in relation to it.
Mr Dore told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme: “We could have contributed as to the manner in which RTÉ chose to go ahead and broadcast the programme in the teeth of protestations of innocence from Fr Reynolds, his willingness to undergo a paternity test and the manner in which RTÉ chose to defend those proceedings.”
Mr Dore has now written to the BAI and RTÉ requesting copies of the report before it is put into the public domain.
He said people should not lose sight of the fact that Fr Reynolds was subjected to “daily misery” by RTÉ which maintained until the very end that it could stand by its story until a paternity test proved that Fr Reynolds was not the father of the child.
Mr Dore described the wholesale editorial changes announced by RTÉ yesterday as “premature” given that they have not received a copy of the BAI report. “I can’t understand why they don’t await the report before they take the actions that they do,” Mr Dore said.
The director general of RTÉ Noel Curran announced yesterday that the head of news Ed Mulhall had retired and the editor of current affairs Ken O’Shea had stepped down from his post as a result of the Fr Reynolds’ libel affair.
Mr Curran also announced that the Prime Time Investigates programme would be disbanded, a new investigations unit set up, new editorial guidelines would be given to all staff and a board of senior editors would be set to review investigative programmes before they go to air.
The three-member external investigation board will make recommendations concerning both Mr Mulhall and Mr O’Shea, as well as Aoife Kavanagh, the reporter involved in the story, and the executive producer Brian Páircéir. Mr Mulhall has retired on a voluntary severance package currently available to RTÉ staff, while Mr O’Shea has been assigned a role in lifestyle and entertainment programmes at RTÉ 2.
RTÉ is aware of the main findings in the BAI report but has yet to receive the full document and notice of the proposed fine. Under broadcasting legislation, it could appeal an adverse finding to the High Court. A spokesman yesterday refused to rule out this course of action.
Five new posts will be created including a new managing director of RTÉ news and current affairs and a new Prime Time editor. These posts will be advertised externally.
All RTÉ editorial staff will be issued with and trained in new journalism guidelines.
These impose stringent new requirements on programme-makers, including a ban on surprise “doorsteps” of people and the need for clearance of investigative programmes by an editorial board seven days before broadcast.
Mr Curran acknowledged that mistakes can happen in broadcasting and journalism “no matter what changes are made”. However, the mistakes made in the Mission to Prey programme were “very serious editorial failures”.
Mr Curran said it would be “incredibly naive” to suggest yesterday’s announcement would gazump the BAI’s findings and “it is now all over and done with" for RTÉ. “None of this is aimed at avoiding the inevitable response that will come from that [report],” he said.
