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Updated 4.25pm
RTÉ IS TO make a statement about its coverage of part of the Corrib ‘rape tape’ claims.
It follows a complaint to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) by Jerrie Ann Sullivan, one of the women whose arrest led to a senior Garda and his colleagues recording themselves talking about the women who were in their custody.
The BAI said that RTÉ’s coverage of the deletion of files on the camcorder that recorded the controversial audio caused Sullivan “undue distress and harm”.
Shell-To-Sea said the correction will be broadcast before the 6.01 News and Nine O’Clock News this Wednesday, 7 December.
The complaints were made by Sullivan under the Broadcasting Act 2009 section 48(1)(a)(fairness, objectivity and impartiality in current affairs) and section 48(1)(b)(harm and offence – Code of Programme Standards: section 3.5.2 factual programming).
She stated that the news report about the outcomes of the investigation by the Garda Siochána Ombudsman Commission into sexually threatening remarks allegedly made by members of the Gardaí broadcast on the Six One news programme was incorrect.
Her complaint centred on the headline ‘Ombudsman says Mayo arrest tape was altered’, which she said was factually incorrect.
She also stated that RTÉ broadcast the line that “part of the recording of the arrest of two women about whom Gardaí were alleged to have made sexually threatening remarks was deleted and overwritten”, which she said was false.
Sullivan said that part of the recording of the arrests was not deleted, and that instead an unrelated file on the camera was deleted and overwritten.
She said the GSOC is aware of that and it did not state that part of the recording was deleted.
The GSOC report states that “footage of the original incident giving rise to the GSOC investigation was recovered from the device along with a number other files that had been deleted and overwritten”.
Sullivan said that RTÉ misinterpreted the GSOC report and broadcast false information that was offensive and harmful to her, and that it damaged her credibility as well as causing offence to the wider community in Kilcommon, Erris Co Mayo.
The report was broadcast during the course of the 6.01pm and 9 O’Clock news.
RTÉ said it believed the studio introduction and report were fully accurate and there was no breach of impartiality or objectivity.
The BAI said that the findings of the GSOC report as summarised in the introduction to the news report are not supported by the GSOC and the report was inaccurate.
It said the “phraseology” used in the report didn’t sufficiently distinguish between the recording that was being investigated and other files on the camcorder; and that this phraseology and inaccuracy in the introduction would have reasonably resulted in a view inferring that the recording being investigated had been tampered with.
The BAI committee was of the view that the report would raise unfounded questions for viewers about the integrity of Sullivan, so it was in breach of section 48(1) of the 2009 Act, and that the report casued undue distress and harm to Sullivan.
It did not agree that the report would have caused undue stress to the community of Kilcommon, Erris.
Sullivan said:
I am relieved that at least one aspect of the misinformation put out by state bodies about this incident has now been corrected.
In correspondence with me prior to the BAI decision, RTE attempted to vigorously defend their inaccurate reporting, citing Minister Alan Shatter’s also misleading comments as a basis for the news.
Dublin Shell to Sea spokesperson Caoimhe Kerins alleged that the situation with the digital camera was explained by telephone to RTÉ, but they ignored this information.
Communications minister Pat Rabbitte, meanwhile, has ruled out the prospect of amending the Broadcasting Acts in the wake of the settlement reached between RTÉ and Kevin Reynolds.
Rabbitte said he would not consider a change in the law requiring RTÉ to publicly declare the extent of its out-of-court settlements, in response to aparliamentary question from Fine Gael backbencher Bernard Durkan.
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“At a cost of 32 million to the exchequer” Should say at a cost of 32 million to PRSI paying employees and self employed.
Government is very quick to take our taxes but they nearly begrudge us getting anything back for it, lol
@Jp Vaughan: its not about what you can get back but what more will go into their pay off’ s and their pension. That gives them something to smile about.
@Jp Vaughan: I was thinking the very same thing!!
“your PRSI” – therefore the scale & polish is not ‘free’ rather it has been ‘pre-paid’ When you get something from the government it is not free, it has been paid for by taxpayers
@Peter Buchanan: absolutely and remember we used to get money off fillings and extractions but the government annihilated those services in 2010 just leaving the dental check up.. cute wh0res are FGFF, we are paying for these services out of our own money anyway
After loosing my job in 2013 I went back to college to educate and up skill myself, completed a 4 year degree and gained immediate full time employment, to told at the dentist you need to be in 5 years full time employment to avail of the free visit, I guess the previous 19 years employment didn’t count.
@Lobert Rester: Well done you and best wishes for the future.
The ironic thing is that a workshy politician only has to spend a few months to qualify for pension and benefits.
Good old Ireland.
Lisa need braces
@Faixa Roxa: dental plan
@Faixa Roxa: €4000-5000
@Faixa Roxa: €4000-5000
@Faixa Roxa: some orthodontists do payment plans.. ring around, I did
@Faixa Roxa: these braces are painless, invisible and periodically emit a delightful burst of Calvin Klein “obsession ” for teeth..
@dan: we don’t have a dental plan right now..
” these braces predate stainless steel, so you can’t get them wet”
@Faixa Roxa: for God’s sake will someone please think of the children
So government provides people services with their (the people’s) own money – (while conveniently not mentioning the billions they waste on pet projects and privatising national resources) – and pats themselves on the back for being generous #voteffg
Not really free.
@Paul Freeman: agreed still cost me €30 for my ‘free’ scale and polish
If you are in a position get any part of it back from the taxes youve paid, all the better, but don’t put off that trip to the dentist any longer; untreated periodontal disease is linked to multiple other problems from Alzheimer’s disease to male infertility. (I’m a sufferer, with no connections to a dentist apart from the bills!)
@Yam Crum: well done for highlighting the links between gum disease & our general health
Free dental check is loved by dentists to get you in the door so that further expensive treatment can be identified and recommended.
@Tim McCormack29: you show your dentist by staying home with rotten teeth. That’ll show the money grabbers.
@Tim McCormack29: The kind of freebie known in many professions as “the sprat to catch a mackerel” :-)
@Tim McCormack29: nonsense. A dentist isn’t going to make up treatment for anybody
@John Paul: Not true.. Panorama in the UK asked people to get a check up and they were first checked that they did not need any work..
Some dentists found work that “needed” to be done.
Only 4,422 people claiming the medical devices …
Have they not heard about it?
@Rob Cleary: They have but there’s a lot who are working who don’t qualify due to their PRSI status such as civil and public servants on older pay arrangements.
@Belebop: sorry what?
@Rob Cleary: Did you not know? There’s thousands of public, semi state and civil servants who pay either partial or no PRSI. Their jobs were seen as jobs for life back in the day, therefore no requirement to contribute. If they got sick they would get full pay, reducing as per length of illness it was part of their service contracts. Sounds great but in reality long term illness led to many retuning to little or no pay for weeks. The system was abolished in recent years with changes to the pay scales of new entrants to the service. All pre1995 and most post 95 pay no PRSI, reducing to a small number of post 2003 workers. Everyone after that pays PRSI so can avail of the schemes.
@Belebop: sorry what, can you speak up?
It is great to finally get something back in direct relation to the PRSI taxes taken out every month.
Crumbs from the swill trough to keep the peasants happy while the pigs bury their snouts .
They base it on your peso payments from two years ago, don’t they?
So your payments in the last year are. It counted. If you were out of work or contracting, then tough, gotta pay up yourself.
Can my wife claim from my PRSI?
@Harry Trafford: yes
Everyone should take advantage of this its good to get something back.
https://www.sisuclinic.com/blogs/teeth-whitening-dublin-best-and-cheapest
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