RTÉ: What We Made in 2021
RTÉ News & Current Affairs
Trust and transparency are the foundation of what we do, and in 2021, RTÉ News became the first Irish news organisation to sign up to the global Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI). This initiative is designed to help audiences find trustworthy, fact-based journalism and combat disinformation, by independently auditing newsrooms around the world. Developed by Reporters Without Borders, supported by the European Broadcasting Union and in collaboration with over 130 organisations, the JTI mark for trusted journalism is awarded to organisations that adhere to a common set of standards around transparency and accuracy.
In 2021, RTÉ remained Ireland’s most trusted source for news. 78% of those questioned for the Reuters Digital News Report (Ireland) said they trusted RTÉ News and Current Affairs. In a year which saw a rapid increase in the spread of false information, RTÉ News launched a brand-new podcast series The Truth Matters: A Guide to Misinformation which explores how misinformation spreads in an era of mass communication and shares advice on how to protect yourself against it.
The podcast coincided with the new phase of RTÉ’s Truth Matters campaign in May aimed at highlighting the issue of misinformation and the importance of accurately sourced news. Featuring trusted RTÉ News correspondents Ailbhe Conneely, Mícheál Lehane and Sinéad Hussey, the campaign focused on how core journalistic values such as trust, integrity, and truth impact their reporting of major news stories. The campaign ran across television, radio, audio, digital and social media platforms (including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat).
We also held an online event as part of the RTÉ News Truth Matters campaign. A Matter of Life and Death: Journalism in a Pandemic featured speakers including Jon Snow of Channel 4 News and a representative from the World Health Organization.
In April, a refresh of RTÉ Prime Time saw a new presenting team announced as Miriam O’Callaghan was joined by presenters, Sarah McInerney and Fran McNulty. A brand-new look for the programme and studio was unveiled which enhances Prime Time’s storytelling capabilities as it reports on Ireland and the wider world. As Ireland’s most-watched current affairs programme, RTÉ Prime Time has been at the heart of RTÉ’s journalism for three decades but has never been more vital than it is right now investigating, explaining, and getting answers to the questions that matter.
In July, RTÉ News partnered in a ground-breaking collaboration with nine other public service media organisations to open a window, online, to bring our audience trusted news from across Europe. A visitor to RTE.ie/news website will be able to see an English translation of a news story that has been published by the Finnish public broadcaster, YLE. Readers in Portugal will be able to find out how the Irish, Spanish and Italian governments have responded to the news regarding COVID-19 vaccinations – all in a language that they understand. Along with our EBU partners, RTÉ is part of Europe’s biggest newsroom. Together, we invest €5.5 billion every year in journalism, while Europe’s public service media organisations employ over 40,000 journalists. This project unlocks that storytelling potential, based on common values and shared interests.
To coincide with November’s COP 26 summit in Glasgow, RTÉ News announced a series of moves designed to increase its focus on reporting climate change. Correspondent George Lee will focus, full-time, on his environment brief to lead RTÉ’s reporting, while once a quarter, a special edition of Prime Time will examine the issue and assess the progress Ireland is making towards meeting its commitments to limit the impact of climate change. The first was broadcast live from Glasgow during COP 26. Staff in News & Current Affairs attended two climate change reporting workshops hosted by Prof. Peter Thorne of Maynooth University and David Robbins, Director of Dublin City University’s Centre for Climate and Society.
Across the year, following competitions, RTÉ News appointed Vincent Kearney as Northern Editor, Conor Macauley as Northern Correspondent, Brian O’Donovan as Work & Technology Correspondent and Irish-Iraqi, Reem El-Hassany as a presenter of RTÉ news2day.
RTÉ Investigates again made headlines with groundbreaking reports. In January, Stuck in the Rough followed the lives of rough sleepers and homeless hostel users, examining the challenges they face and the difficulties in getting out of a life on the streets.
RTÉ Investigates
The gold standard of RTÉ’s journalism, in 2021 RTÉ Investigates again made headlines with groundbreaking reports. In January, Stuck in the Rough followed the lives of rough sleepers and homeless hostel users, examining the challenges they face and the difficulties in getting out of a life on the streets. The programme revealed how, despite 75 beds being empty the night one of the homeless men called the homeless freephone number, he was told he could not access a bed. This led to a public outcry and resulted in the minister with responsibility for housing issuing an apology.
In February, The Third Wave took viewers into the heart of Tallaght University Hospital where once again frontline staff faced enormous challenges, in the latest surge of Covid-19. Revealing the true picture behind the ongoing headlines and daily numbers, the documentary showed doctors and nurses fighting to keep Covid patients alive. The increased spread of the virus during December left hospitals facing a massive spike in the number of cases requiring critical care. By mid-January, ICUs were full with many hospitals forced to use their surge capacity. In Tallaght University Hospital some operating theatres were converted into ICU wards.
Who Am I? The Story of Ireland’s Illegal Adoptions in March uncovered new evidence of the involvement of some of Ireland’s most elite and powerful individuals in repeatedly arranging the illegal adoption of babies, almost a decade after the Adoption Act 1952 came into force. The team spoke with dozens of people from around the country who were illegally adopted. Many of those described the shock of learning for the very first time, in their 60s and 70s that they were adopted. Basically, being left asking the question, ‘Who am I?’ Following the programme, the minister with responsibility for children commissioned a review of illegal adoptions in Ireland going back to the 1950s. The report is due to be published in 2022.
In July, RTÉ Investigates monitored several locations across Dublin where drugs were openly sold on the streets, in the full glare of the public. One such location was close to a senior citizens housing complex in Ballymun. To capture the extent of the drug dealing problem there, RTÉ Investigates – Crack and the Community secretly filmed over five days. On the first day alone, undercover cameras filmed over 42 potential drug deals in just a four-hour afternoon period. The programme showed young children regularly passing by as open drug dealing took place. In the 15 minutes it took for children to pass by the location, as they made their way home from primary school, the cameras recorded at least nine deals taking place in front of some of those children.
Losing Lee revealed that an investigation was under way at one of the country’s largest hospitals after it was discovered multiple baby organs were sent abroad for incineration without the knowledge or consent of the parents. The programme revealed internal hospital correspondence which showed hospital staff were aware in early 2020 that the Holy Angels plot was full, and they decided cremation was not an option. The result was that multiple baby organs which had been released by the pathology department following post-mortem lay in storage in the hospital’s morgue – in some cases for several months. Eventually the organs were sent abroad along with medical waste for incineration.
In November, Wardship – The Decision Makers examined the antiquated ward of court system and the significant impact it has on the wards and their families. There are more than 2,100 adult wards of court in Ireland. Under Victoria-era legislation, a ward loses a whole range of personal freedoms. That was all supposed to change six years ago when a new law was passed to consign wardship to history. But that hasn’t happened yet. And though it is hoped that the new system will be fully operational in the next 12 months, the proposed review of existing cases is likely to take another three years and will come too late for some of our elderly citizens who make up the majority of wards in Ireland.
A Patient’s Nightmare revealed a series of complaints on the suspected sexual abuse of unconscious patients by one anaesthetist in an Irish hospital. The complaints were made against an anaesthetist working at Naas General Hospital since at least 2012. One patient who was abused while unconscious following an operation described how he still struggles coming to terms with what happened to him. A Garda investigation is ongoing.
