RTÉ was criticised today after it aired a misleading reconstruction from the Morris tribunal that gave the impression a trusted garda aide to the inquiry had no interest in uncovering the truth.
Mr Justice Frederick Morris, tribunal chairman, agreed the broadcast was badly edited and created a deeply unpleasant impression of highly regarded liaison officer Chief Supt Terry McGinn.
In a brief address, counsel for the tribunal Peter Charleton SC said the reconstruction, aired on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, had left listeners with the feeling that she was unsupportive.
Chief Supt McGinn, who has liaised with dozens of officers since the tribunal began in 2002, has been praised in the past by Judge Morris for her work.
But Mr Charleton said the broadcast left the impression that the senior officer had no interest in assisting the tribunal or uncovering the truth.
He revealed if the reconstruction had carried on through the next few minutes of evidence it would have shown the high regard in which Chief Supt McGinn was held by gardaí and tribunal staff.
Judge Morris said: "There is no doubt that if the broadcast terminated at the point you (Mr Charleton) indicated it may well convey the entirely wrong impression of what the evidence was.
"Hopefully the record would be corrected and set right, because it would be quite wrong if anybody should be left with the idea that Chief Superintendent McGinn was not extremely helpful to the tribunal in the carrying out of its work."
Mr Justice Morris added that it would be unfair to leave the public with the impression that she was not interested when Garda John Dooley came to her preparing to come clean about abuse meted out to mother-of-three Katrina Brolly.
PA