RTÉ review of tweet row to include senior editors

RTÉ HAS promised an intensive review process involving senior editorial staff to address the issues raised by the Seán Gallagher tweet controversy.

The board of the national broadcaster yesterday apologised to Mr Gallagher over the tweet broadcast on The Frontline presidential election debate which badly damaged his campaign.

The board said it fully accepted the findings of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which this week upheld a complaint by Mr Gallagher about the show and the Today with Pat Kenny radio programme.

Mr Kenny said yesterday that neither he nor his radio team were aware the tweet he read out about Mr Gallagher during the debate the previous night was bogus.

Speaking on his radio programme yesterday, Mr Kenny said there was “nothing” about the tweet in the newspapers on the morning after the debate, or on Morning Ireland or the News at One. Neither had Mr Gallagher raised the issue on the radio programme that morning, he said.

Mr Kenny said he had been asked not to discuss the issue in public but these were the facts and he wanted to state them.

The authority said earlier this week RTÉ had made “no apparent efforts” to verify the source and accuracy of the tweet. Incorrectly described by Mr Kenny as having been issued by the official Martin McGuinness campaign, the tweet put Mr Gallagher under increased pressure to explain his past links to Fianna Fáil.

In a statement issued after a special meeting, the board repeated an earlier apology by director general Noel Curran about the programmes. It said an internal editorial standards board was being established to monitor standards.

The board said it was reassured that Mr Curran was taking the necessary steps to ensure that RTÉ will have in place rules, regulations, protocols and best practice to reduce the risk of any recurrence of the failures.

It and the director general shared a commitment to ensuring that the restoration of public confidence in RTÉ’s journalism progresses without delay, according to the statement.

The authority found The Frontline last October was unfair to Mr Gallagher because it failed to clarify the provenance of the tweet wrongly attributed to the campaign of Sinn Féin candidate Martin McGuinness. It was also faulted for failing to clarify the tweet during the programme, while the Today with Pat Kenny broadcast the following day was blamed for exacerbating the unfairness by not clarifying the issue. Describing the BAI findings as wide-ranging and fair, it acknowledged that the broadcaster had failed in its obligation of fairness to Mr Gallagher.

The board noted that internal rules were being introduced to ensure that RTÉ met the best standards of journalism. New protocols were being introduced to govern the use of social media.

The board said it was reassured by some of the authority’s findings, which said there was no evidence that information was concealed about the tweet and no question about the bona fides of Mr Kenny or his production team.

Mr Gallagher has not ruled out taking legal action. However, a spokesman last night said Mr Gallagher was very satisfied with the full apology from RTÉ’s board.

Noel Whelan: page 14