RTÉ is being taken to court by a Fine Gael councillor in a case that could have implications for journalists involved in undercover reporting and how they go about their investigations.
Former Galway County mayor Tom McHugh is claiming breach of privacy and other issues in High Court proceedings after he was interviewed by an undercover reporter posing as an investor for the RTÉ Investigates programme, Standards in Public Office, broadcast last December.
The station is going to defend its actions in secretly recording an interview with the councillor in a meeting arranged under false pretences.
Mr McHugh was interviewed by a reporter who, using the name Nina, said she represented a wind farm business interested in investing in Ireland.
Agreed to meet
Mr McHugh said he was contacted by phone and agreed to meet the woman to discuss a wind energy project in East Galway.
He discussed the issue with her, he said, and she raised the issue of taking on a consultant.
He in turn offered to contact someone whom he thought could be of assistance.
“I did as I said I would. I spoke to the man I knew, and I was pleased with my evening’s work,” Mr McHugh said.
He left a message on “Nina’s” phone but heard no more.
He said he later heard from another councillor who had also been interviewed, and realised it was “a scam”.
RTÉ had established that Mr McHugh had failed to register certain assets that he should have registered.
However, none of the footage from the secret filming of his meeting with “Nina” was used.
Footage of other councillors was used, including that of Hugh McElvaney of Monaghan County Council and Sligo-based councillor Joe Queenan, who offered to act as an intermediary in return for an investment in an agricultural business he was planning.
‘Entrap me’
Mr McHugh said he had no difficulty with the station disclosing his failure to register his assets but had concern it was seeking to “entrap me using false pretences”.
He said he had thought long and hard before taking the case. “I am alleging a breach of my human rights,” he said.
“I expect people who ring me to be acting in a bona fide way. I would not do [what was done to him] to anybody.”
The councillor said he wanted to know if RTÉ had the right to “lure him” to a meeting on the basis of false information it had provided.
He said the actions of the station might be in breach of their duty of responsibility to people they are interviewing.
A spokeswoman for RTÉ said it could not comment.
Another councillor in the documentary, Donegal-based John O’Donnell, has threatened to sue the station but has not lodged any proceedings.
