Dublin, Ireland, Apr 4, 2012 / 17:50 pm
Irish broadcaster RTE has ended its current affairs series “Prime Time Investigates” after a news report last year falsely claimed a missionary priest raped and impregnated a minor in Kenya.
The move is part of a “full restructuring” to help program makers at all levels accept “their responsibility and role in rebuilding RTE’s reputation for very high quality journalism,” RTE director general Noel Curran said April 3.
“Mistakes will happen in broadcasting and in journalism, no matter what changes are made. Program makers must be and will be supported in making challenging programming but the standards we set for ourselves as the national broadcaster must be very high, as I know they are in so much of what we currently do,” Curran said.
In May 2011, “Prime Time Investigates” broadcast an episode “Mission To Prey” that wrongly accused Fr. Kevin Reynolds of County Galway of raping and impregnating an underage girl in Kenya 30 years ago. It falsely reported that the priest secretly provided financial support for the baby.