MEMBERS OF the Prime Time Investigates team which libelled Fr Kevin Reynolds have severely criticised the report by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland into the affair.
While accepting that errors were made which resulted in the defamation of Fr Reynolds, the journalists argue in their submissions to the authority that its investigation was flawed.
The responses by reporter Aoife Kavanagh and executive producer Brian Páircéir claim the report by former BBC Northern Ireland head Anna Carragher is in some respects inaccurate, unfair and incomplete.
Both journalists complain to the authority about the leaking of documents which they say prejudiced their rights before the investigation process was complete. They allege the report reaches conclusions on matters that were not canvassed when they were interviewed by Ms Carragher, and which they were therefore unable to respond to.
The authority last week fined RTÉ €200,000 after finding the programme was unfair to Fr Reynolds and breached his privacy. Mission to Prey wrongly alleged that the priest had sexually abused a young woman in Africa and fathered a child by her.
Ms Kavanagh submitted a written response to the authority when provided with an executive summary of the report by the investigating officer, Ms Carragher. Last month lawyers for the National Union of Journalists made a further submission to the authority on her behalf criticising Ms Carragher’s approach and her draft findings. No material changes were made to the final report in relation to the points made by Ms Kavanagh or Mr Páircéir in their submissions.
A submission by then head of current affairs Ken O’Shea, who stepped down last month, is also understood to be critical of the report.
The fourth journalist to make a submission, Mark Lappin, disagrees with his colleagues on some points. Mr Lappin has now left RTÉ.
A spokeswoman for the authority said it stood over the report’s findings, adding Ms Carragher had based her report on all the material provided by RTÉ and other parties, and not just on the interviews.
Ms Kavanagh has not commented publicly aside from a short statement announcing her resignation, but her submissions make clear her unhappiness at the investigatory procedures used. She says the report failed to take full account of her experience and breached principles of natural justice by failing to give her a chance to respond to assertions which were later included in the report. “I am satisfied that the credibility of the key sources in this case was fully and properly interrogated,” she states.
Mr Páircéir says it is inexplicable that people who were intimately involved in making the programme were not interviewed.
