`Prime Time' complaint upheld

The Broadcasting Complaints' Commission has up held a complaint by the chief executive officer of the Western Health Board, Mr…

The Broadcasting Complaints' Commission has up held a complaint by the chief executive officer of the Western Health Board, Mr Eamonn Hannan, against an RTE Prime Time programme broadcast in April 1996 about the Kelly Fitzgerald case.

The Commission found that the programme, when dealing with the events that led to the death of 15 year old Kelly Fitzgerald in February 1993 and the role of the Western Health Board in the case, "did not leave the viewer with an accurate impression of the subject dealt with". It also found that RTE had failed in its statutory obligations under Section 18 of the Broadcasting Act.

A number of criticisms of the social work service were not supported or justified by fact, the commission found.