UPDATE: It is real.
\n***
\nI’m not a journalist and I’m not used to getting leaks.
\nSo all I can tell you is, I received the text below and it may be accurate or it may not.
\nIf it is accurate, it is the most expansive RTE has been in trying to justify their decision making on this.
\nIf it isn’t accurate I’ll clarify that in an update and we can leave this post as a monument to my folly. <\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Colleagues,<\/p>\n
Over the last week a number of people have approached me questioning RT\u00c9\u2019s apology to John Waters and members of the Iona Institute following the receipt of six legal complaints and you will, no doubt, have seen the ongoing debate on this subject.<\/p>\n
I want to reassure you that RT\u00c9 explored every option available to it, including right of reply. Legal advice was sought and all avenues were explored, including an offer to make a donation to a neutral charity.<\/p>\n
However, based on the facts of what was broadcast, and having regard for broadcasting compliance issues, the seriousness of the legal complaints, and the decision by the complainants not to accept RT\u00c9\u2019s proposed remedies, we decided that a settlement was the most prudent course of action. Senior counsel was consulted and confirmed that the legal position was far from clear.<\/p>\n
As a dual-funded public body, RT\u00c9 should not knowingly progress to defend an action when it is advised, internally and externally, that such a defence is unlikely to succeed before a jury.<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 has not engaged in censorship, but has rather fallen foul of Ireland\u2019s defamation laws. The topic reopened over the weekend and RT\u00c9 will continue to cover this and related issues, as evidenced by last week\u2019s Late Debate, coverage of the protest in Dublin city centre on Sunday, today\u2019s item on Today with Sean O\u2019Rourke on RT\u00c9 Radio 1 and last weekend\u2019s debate on the subject on The Saturday Night Show.<\/p>\n
Glen Killane
\nMDTV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPDATE: It is real. *** I’m not a journalist and I’m not used to getting leaks. So all I can tell you is, I received the text below and it may be accurate or it may not. If it is accurate, it is the most expansive RTE has been in trying to justify their decision making on this. If it isn’t accurate I’ll clarify that in an update and we can leave this post as a monument to my folly. *** Colleagues, Over the last week a number of people have approached me questioning RT\u00c9\u2019s apology to John Waters and members of the Iona Institute following the receipt of six legal complaints and you will, no doubt, have seen the ongoing debate on this subject. I want to reassure you that RT\u00c9 explored every option available to it, including right of reply. Legal advice was sought and all avenues were explored, including an offer to make a donation to a neutral charity. However, based on the facts of what was broadcast, and having regard for broadcasting compliance issues, the seriousness of the legal complaints, and the decision by the complainants not to accept RT\u00c9\u2019s proposed remedies, we decided that a settlement was the most prudent course of action. Senior counsel was consulted and confirmed that the legal position was far from clear. As a dual-funded public body, RT\u00c9 should not knowingly progress to defend an action when it is advised, internally and externally, that such a defence is unlikely to succeed before a jury. RT\u00c9 has not engaged in censorship, but has rather fallen foul of Ireland\u2019s defamation laws. The topic reopened over the weekend and RT\u00c9 will continue to cover this and related issues, as evidenced by last week\u2019s Late Debate, coverage of the protest in Dublin city centre on Sunday, today\u2019s item on Today with Sean O\u2019Rourke on RT\u00c9 Radio 1 and last weekend\u2019s debate on the subject on The Saturday Night Show. Glen Killane MDTV","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1604"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1606,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604\/revisions\/1606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}