The Gazette 1980

GAZETTE

JULY AUGUST 1980

President's strong criticism of RTE programme structure

O'Donnell had been given over eight minutes and Mr. Rochford about five minutes. "Mr. Wright told the news conference: 'I think the legal profession was fairly defended. They were given ample time to give their views'." Mr. Frank O'Donnell sent a formal letter of complaint to the Director-General of RTE, Mr. George Waters, and received the following reply:

The strong reaction of solicitors to the unfair pattern of the "Week I n" programme broadcast by RTE 2 on May 19 was expressed by the President who spoke to a special Press conference at Blackhall Place on the following day about what he characterised as "irresponsible TV". The President asked: "Wh at do you do with an anonymous letter? Most responsible people treat an anonymous letter with contempt and consign it to the wastepaper basket. Responsible newspapers have always made it clear that people who wish to shelter behind the veil of anonymity must give their name and address to the Editor, and they are therefore aware that they are identifiable. Yet RTE 2, as a lead into their programme on the legal profession on Monday night, started with three anonymous interviewees. In the case of the last man who was interviewed we were treated to the spectacle of a Mafia type interview in a motor vehicle. Not alone do we not know the names and addresses of those who were interviewed, but in the case of the car interview we were not even allowed to see his face. We only saw the back of his head. "I am concerned that RTE should be irresponsible in this way, and should permit those interviewed in serious matters, which slanted the whole programme, to be thus sheltered. Surely, if they have valid criticisms to make, they are not fearful to put their name where their mouth is. Otherwise, what they say is suspect. It is easy to be highly critical if you know in advance that viewers do not know who you are, and, in the case of the last man, cannot even know what you look like, because all that is shown is the back of your head. "Let us be quite clear that I make this statement more in sorrow than in anger, and in no way as a reaction to any criticism of our profession in the programme. We are not above criticism. We welcome criticism where it is well-founded. We deal with all criticism. Well-founded criticism will help us to be better people and to continue to serve the public in the high tradition which this profession has maintained during the last 128 years." TIME TO REPLY The chairman of the Public Relations Committee, Mr. Frank O'Donnell, who took part in the programme with Mr. John Rochford, said that RTE had not given them the time they had been promised to reply to the allegations made on the programme. "The Irish Independent" in its report of the Press conference, headed " RTE accused of 'dirty tricks' ", said in part: "They also attacked the recording of the comments of Mr. Alan Ball, of the Clients of the Legal Profession Association. They said these should have been made in the live interview. "The editor of "Week I n ", Mr. Alan Wright said the station had picked the three unnamed people from a panel of about 50. "Ea ch member of the studio discussion panel, he said, had been given an average of three minutes to speak, Mr.

13th June, 1980

Dear Mr. O'Donnell,

Thank you for your letter of 28th May. I note your reservations about the treatment of the subject matter of our Programme "Week-In" presented on Monday 19th May and I am sorry that you feel aggrieved with the Production team's treatment. I understand that the editor of the Programme, Mr. Alan Wright, attended the Press Conference called by your President on 20th May, 1980, and during the course of the Conference answered all of the questions raised in your letter. I also understand that Mr. Wright's answers to these questions were to a large extent acceptable to your President. Indeed, some days later Mr. Wright received a letter from Mr. Beatty which confirmed that this in fact was the case. I hope you will accept that RTE's objective in presenting a programme such as this was merely to high-light an issue of public concern and was in no way intended to denegrate in any way the Legal Profession as a whole.

Yours sincerely, George T. Waters.

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