11 Noll 2012, 15:31
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications will tomorrow meet with RTÉ Director General Noel Curran to consider issues arising from the Frontline Presidential Debate.
11 December 2012
The meeting will focus on the Report of the Editorial Review on the Frontline Presidential Debate, which was published by RTÉ last month. The authors of the Report, Rob Morrison, Former UTV Head of News and Current Affairs and Steve Carson, Director of Programmes at RTÉ television, will also attend. The Report, accepted in full by RTÉ, contains a number of recommendations for future audience-based election programmes.
Chairman of the Committee Tom Hayes TD says: “Our Committee has an important oversight role in the general policy direction of public bodies and, as such, intends to consider the wider implications arising from the Frontline Presidential Debate at tomorrow’s meeting. Committee Members are supportive of a vigorous and dynamic public service broadcaster and have been concerned at the editorial and managerial lapses in this case, which led to the broadcast of a programme not meeting acceptable standards.
“The Report’s terms of reference included how the questions in the Frontline programme were devised and how the audience members were selected. We look forward to engaging with RTÉ management, and the authors of the Report, in a clearheaded, comprehensive and balanced manner to assess what steps have been taken to secure public confidence in such high-profile audience-based current affairs programmes.”
The meeting takes place tomorrow Wednesday 12 December in Committee Room 4, Leinster House 2000, at 9.30 a.m.
Committee proceedings can be viewed online via this link.
For further information contact:
Paul Hand,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +353 1 618 4484
M: +353 87 694 9926
Committee Membership
Deputies
Michael Colreavy, Sinn Féin
Timmy Dooley, Fianna Fáil
Dessie Ellis, Sinn Féin
Terence Flanagan, Fine Gael
Tom Fleming, Independent
Noel Harrington, Fine Gael
Tom Hayes, Fine Gael (Chairman)
Colm Keaveney, Labour
Seán Kenny, Labour
Michael Moynihan, Fianna Fáil
Patrick O’Donovan, Fine Gael
John O’Mahony, Fine Gael (Vice-Chairman)
Ann Phelan, Labour
Brian Walsh, Fine Gael
Senators
Terry Brennan
Sean D. Barrett
Eamonn Coghlan
Paschal Mooney
Ned O’Sullivan
John Whelan