RTE today denied stopping one of the State's leading cancer specialists from appearing on Friday night's Late Late Showat the request of Government.
Consultant oncologist Professor John Crown - a longtime critic of Government health policy - was invited onto the programme's panel discussing cancer services.
However, he was later axed, RTE said, in the interest of balance. But Prof Crown has alleged Government interference.
Writing in today's Sunday Independent, Prof Crown said he was told the decision to cut him from the panel hours before air was taken at a "higher level" than the programme makers.
And he was "chilled" by comments made by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the Dáil last week when he referred to having briefing notes on Prof Crown.
Prof Crown questioned whether this was another example of the Government and Department of Health engaging in "blatant intimidation of those health professionals who dare to go off message, and to bring sincerely held concerns into the public domain".
In his article, the eminent oncologist who in 2002 said the best way to improve the health service was to vote Labour, wondered whether public money was used to compile "McCarthy-esque dossiers" for the Taoiseach.
"I intended to discuss this on the Late Late Show, when I was invited to participate in a discussion on the health service. I was then informed that a high-level decision had been made by RTE management to remove me from the programme in the interest of balance, as the HSE and the department had refused to participate.
"In effect, they were able to censor me by proxy."
The other panellists on the programme were journalists Eamon Dunphy and Mary Raftery; and television executive and business guru Gerry Robinson.
RTE issued a statement this morning in which director general Cathal Goan denied there was a political motive for dropping Prof Crown. It described newspaper claims that an official from the Department of Health contacted him as "without foundation".
"There was no phone call or contact between the offices of the Minister for Health and the director general on Friday regarding the composition of the panel discussing health issues on the Late Late Show.
"Furthermore, the director general did not know that it was proposed to have Professor Crown on the panel.
"The decision to reconfigure the panel was made by the television division without any external influence," according to the statement read out on the Marian Finucane Showon Radio One this morning.
Peter Feeney RTE head of public affairs was quoted on the programme saying the concern was expressed to the Late Late Show'sproducers that the panel was not balanced and should be reconfigured.
"But it was not suggested that any specific person should be removed," Mr Feeney was quoted as saying.
The Taoiseach and the Minister for Health have also denied any interference in the matter.
Fine Gael health spokesman James Reilly said the affair was "sinister" and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore it amounted to "censorship and a denial of free speech".
"It would appear to me that his removal from the programme was due directly to a fear of what he might say. Prof Crown's removal is especially sinister in the light of the menacing comments made by Taoiseach last Wednesday," Mr Gilmore said.