The appetite for edgy, ground breaking journalism led RTÉ to "devour good editorial practice" when it screened the controversial Prime Time television documentary about Fr Kevin Reynolds, one of its leading news presenters has said.
Bryan Dobson described the programme as a fundamental failure by the national broadcaster.
The programme falsely alleged Fr Reynolds had raped a young woman in Kenya and fathered a child. RTÉ apologised to him and settled his libel case out of court in 2011.
Speaking at his inaugural lecture as adjunct professor of public service broadcasting at the University of Limerick, RTÉ's Six One presenter warned of the hazards that come with the ambition to produce programmes that make a real impact. This was particularly the case in current affairs programmes, which he believed were exposed to more risks and were under greater pressure to maintain audiences.
"When those two ingredients, risk and ratings, are mixed together, there is a potentially explosive compound. Certainly that's what lies behind the single biggest crisis in RTÉ News and Current Affairs in my 25 years , Father Reynolds' libel case involving Prime Time," he said. Dobson said he was speaking in a personal capacity and not on behalf of RTÉ.
“Much has been written and said about the programme, about RTÉ’s handling of the legal case and the many lessons to be learned. But it seemed to me that RTÉ’s fundamental failure was to allow this appetite for ‘edgy’, ground breaking journalism to devour good journalistic practice and particularly editorial practice. It was failure above all of editorial control,” he added.
According to Dobson, all RTÉ staff suffered reputational damage as a result of the Prime Time documentary, However a number of things had happened at the organisation which had helped to restore public confidence in RTÉ journalism.
“New, more rigorous procedures were put in place with clear lines of editorial control and responsibility. And RTÉ current affairs ‘got back up on the investigative horse’,” he said.
“Where it could have lost its nerve, instead RTÉ recommitted itself to investigative journalism and established the Investigations Unit which has produced a series of important programmes in the period since.”
Crucially, he said, investigative programmes were now broadcast when they were ready to be broadcast and when they had cleared the editorial process.
He said trust was “the foundation for everything we do as journalists”.
He believed NBC news anchor in the US, Brian Williams, was suspended this week, not because he embellished a story about a helicopter trip in the desert, but because his integrity and truthfulness had been called into question.
“And if ‘old media’ are to have a future it will be as providers of news and information that can be trusted, that can be believed. Particularly in public service broadcasting we must stand by the principle that our role is to illuminate, to try to promote calm, reasoned debate,” he added.
Dobson said he believed Irish media, where possible, should be Irish-owned and Irish-run, whether public or private.
He said public service broadcasting should continue to be adequately funded but it should also be fully accountable for that funding.
Dobson took up his unpaid position in UL at the beginning of the academic year, joining former editor of The Irish Times Geraldine Kennedy and Sunday Times columnist Justine McCarthy who are also adjunct professors of journalism at UL. During his three-year contract he will deliver lectures in public service broadcast policy and give master classes in broadcast journalism.
