RTE granted legal representation

RTÉ has been granted legal representation at the Barr Tribunal following allegations that the State broadcaster acted irresponsibly in its coverage of events at Abbeylara on the day Mr John Carthy was shot dead by gardaí.

Extracts of RTÉ's Five Seven Live, broadcast shortly after 5 p.m. on the day of Mr Carthy's death, were played in evidence to the tribunal yesterday.

During the broadcast Mr Carthy was named as the man at the centre of the siege, the extent of the Garda presence at his house was detailed, and a woman interviewed gave out personal details about Mr Carthy and begged him to leave the house.

Counsel for the gardaí, Mr John Rogers, contended that RTÉ failed to exercise reasonable care and restraint and that the broadcast contributed to Mr Carthy leaving the house to be killed by gardaí.

"I say that, contemporaneous to John Carthy's unexpected emergence, he was listening to this broadcast. The tone and urgency of the immediate reportage couldn't but have had an impact on John Carthy.

"This was something thrown into a difficult situation and not controlled by the Garda negotiators."

Had the ERU negotiators been in control of the flow of information they would not have allowed these details to be "thrown into the pot", Mr Rogers said.

"In this instant restraint was not exercised properly, or not at all."

During the broadcast Ms Mary McDowell, described as a friend of Mr Carthy, was asked by the RTÉ reporter at the scene, Niall O'Flynn, if she had a message for Mr Carthy.

Ms McDowell was heard to say: "Come out, everybody loves you. Everybody's thinking about you and worrying about you and you are a good friend and you've lots of friends. So please, John, please come out."

Mr Rogers stressed he was not criticising anyone interviewed by RTÉ.

Counsel for the Garda Commissioner told the tribunal the Garda Press Officer, Supt John Farrelly, had asked the media not to identify Mr Carthy and to "exercise restraint" in their reporting.

Mr Carthy had been named by the show's presenter, Myles Dungan, during an interview with Supt Farrelly.

Counsel seeking to represent RTÉ, Mr David Keane, said Mr Rogers was "inviting the tribunal to deal with hypothetical".

It was his understanding that there was no evidence to prove that Mr Carthy's radio was on or that it had been tuned to RTÉ Radio 1.

In his ruling, the chair of the tribunal, Judge Robert Barr, said it was "fair and reasonable" that RTÉ be granted representation. Mr Rogers would be entitled to question his witness, Supt Patrick Tansey, about the interview, he said, but RTÉ should also be allowed time to prepare its defence.

With this in mind, Judge Barr said that the Five Seven Live programme, along with other media broadcasts, would be dealt with in a separate module.

However, he added it was the tribunal's intention that the media module be dealt with at "an early date".