RTÉ to discuss cocaine allegation at meeting

The controversy surrounding the broadcasting of a documentary which contains an allegation that a Government Minister took cocaine is to be raised at the monthly RTÉ Authority meeting today.

The nine-member authority will hear from Noel Curran, RTÉ's managing director of television, in relation to High Society, the recently broadcast two-part documentary.

The Government has accused RTÉ of failing to substantiate the allegation and for trivialising the issue of cocaine use among the middle class. The pressure on RTÉ increased earlier this week when it was revealed no tape exists of the interview conducted by journalist and broadcaster Justine Delaney Wilson.

Ms Delaney Wilson, currently on holiday in New Zealand, has said she made a digital recording of the interview with the politician, but that it no longer exists.

In a statement issued on Monday, RTÉ said it believed the interview had never been recorded, but had instead been written down in the form of notes. Publishers Gill and MacMillan said it also believed the interview had not been taped.

RTÉ Authority chairwoman Mary Finan said the meeting with Mr Curran and his radio equivalent, Adrian Moynes, had already been scheduled before the controversy broke in relation to the documentary. She said the authority will wait to hear how the inquiry is progressing before making any comment on it.

Yesterday, Ms Delaney Wilson's new solicitor, Karyn Hardy, said her client was aware of the seriousness of the situation even though she is in New Zealand.

Ms Hardy told RTÉ's Drivetime programme it was wrong to suggest that because the recording of the interview no longer existed it was fabricated in the first place.

"You might say with hindsight that it was not wise to do it [wipe the recording], but people have been taking it further to extrapolate that she fabricated the whole thing. That is an extremely serious allegation and it is simply not true. If you look at Gill and MacMillan and RTÉ's statement, they absolutely stand over the veracity of it."

Ms Hardy said she was not the solicitor who advised her to destroy the tape, an action which she said was frequently suggested by media lawyers in Britain. She said Ms Delaney Wilson erased the recording because she felt threatened by media speculation surrounding the documentary.