RTÉ LAST Friday night rebroadcast its apology to Fr Kevin Reynolds regarding its libel of the priest in the Prime Time Investigates – Mission to Prey programme.
The decision to re-record the apology and rebroadcast it after last Friday night’s Nine O’Clock News was taken by director general Noel Curran.
It followed criticism of the original apology, broadcast on November 17th last, after members of the RTÉ board raised questions at a meeting this week about the manner in which the original apology had been run.
Fr Reynolds was told in advance the apology was to be rebroadcast.
The first broadcast of the “correction order” demanded by the High Court after RTÉ settled the case was criticised by viewers, who said it was read out at speed and in a monotone.
The action for libel made over the programme resulted in a seven-figure settlement by RTÉ in favour of the priest on November 17th.
Since then, two inquiries have begun into why the programme-makers went ahead with the allegation Fr Reynolds had raped a minor and had a child in Kenya 30 years ago, yet failed to take up his offer of a paternity test.
It has been learned Mr Curran offered to step down from his post after the results of the paternity test of Fr Reynolds became known. This was confirmed by a spokesman for RTÉ.
The spokesman said Mr Curran, as editor-in-chief, told board chairman Tom Savage he was prepared to step down.
The offer had been made “in recognition of the gravity of the error made by the programme and of the injury done to Fr Reynolds, and notwithstanding that the decision to broadcast the programme was, as is normal in RTÉ, made at divisional rather than corporate level”.
“The offer was firmly rejected by the chairman on the basis that Mr Curran was not involved in the decision-making process on the programme. It was agreed that the imperative was for the director general, as chief executive and editor-in-chief, to lead the internal investigation into how the programme was originated, prepared and produced for air in a defamatory form.”
The spokesman said the activity set in train by Mr Curran, including internal reviews and an external review by Press Ombudsman John Horgan, would be completed before a meeting of the RTÉ board on December 15th.
Mr Curran plans to make a series of recommendations to this meeting.
The spokesman added RTÉ news managing editor Ed Mulhall and current affairs editor Ken O’Shea had both offered to step aside after talks with Mr Curran prior to the meeting of the board last Wednesday.