RTE has paid out almost €7.3 million in defamation settlements and legal costs in the past eight years, according to figures obtained by The Sunday Times under freedom of information laws.
Commenting on the payouts, the station called for the government to reform Ireland’s defamation law, which has been criticised by a number of international bodies for having a chilling effect on journalism and freedom of speech.
The figures released by RTE show that the costs of defamation settlements have increased for the national broadcaster by 27 per cent over the last four-year period, with €4 million paid out in settlements and costs between 2017 and 2020. Montrose had paid out €3.2 million on cases in the previous four-year period.
RTE says it has insurance in place “for such legal issues” and, because of reimbursements from its insurers after settlements, the actual cost to the station was less than the figures released.
Details supplied by RTE to the Dail’s public accounts committee (PAC) show that it has paid just over €61,000 to charities due to defamation complaints since 2013. That includes €20,000 to settle a complaint from the republican group Eirigi after John McGuirk, the editor of Gript Media, wrongly said on Prime Time that it was involved in the murder of a journalist in Derry.
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The station told the PAC in a letter on July 12 that it had been the subject of 504 defamation complaints from 2010 up to July 2020. The peak was between 2010 and 2012, with between 58 and 61 complaints in each of the three years.
By 2018 the number of complaints had fallen to 33. There were 23 in 2019 and 17 last year. This year 20 complaints have been received up to July.
Some journalists and producers believe the station has become more “risk averse” since the 2011 Mission to Prey programme that resulted in a large sum in compensation being paid to a priest who was wrongly accused of secretly fathering a child in Africa.
Some complaints against RTE have been settled quickly, while others have dragged on for years. In 2014 the station was criticised for paying €45,000 to members of the Iona Institute and €40,000 to John Waters, then a journalist. This followed a claim that they were “homophobic”, made by the transvestite performer Rory O’Neill, also known as Panti Bliss, on The Saturday Night Show.
David Norris, an independent senator, used privilege in the Seanad to complain about RTE “giving in so gutlessly to the bullies”. Norris himself sued RTE over coverage of his 2011 presidential election campaign on Liveline, presented by Joe Duffy, in a case that was settled out of court.
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The Sinn Fein TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire reportedly received more than €150,000 earlier this year from RTE after he complained about a Liveline segment in which he was mentioned. The FAI sued RTE in 2015 over its coverage of the football body’s finances, but the station did not pay any settlement. Last year the station settled a High Court action taken by businessman Declan Ganley in 2011 and apologised. It also paid a settlement and legal costs to Kevin Myers, a former Sunday Times columnist, in 2020.
Three years ago Sinn Fein’s Nicky Kehoe won €3,500 after he sued the station over comments made on the Saturday with Claire Byrne radio show.
RTE said it has put in place editorial controls to minimise risk. “All media organisations in Ireland operate in one of the most restrictive and challenging defamation regimes in the world. This is evidenced not only by the influx of US celebrities bringing defamation actions in Ireland, but also by the EU 2020 Rule of Law Report on Ireland, which stated that ‘frequent defamation suits, high costs of defence and high damages awarded by Irish courts are seen as an inducement to self-censorship and a constraint to media freedom, also to the detriment of the fight against corruption’. That same report notes this government’s pledge to reform the defamation laws in Ireland.”
RTE said damages in defamation cases “are a multiple of those awarded in personal injuries actions”, which were recently reduced to bring them more in line with awards in other countries.
“Awards in defamation cases in Ireland are also significantly higher than those given by courts in England,” RTE said. “The abolition of juries in defamation cases and a cap on damages would introduce transparency and consistency in defamation awards. They would also make Irish law more compatible with the state’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.”
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Successive ministers of justice have promised to publish plans to reform the defamation law. A spokesman for the minister Helen McEntee told The Sunday Times in December that proposals would be advanced to government level “in the coming weeks”. This did not happen.
In a recent briefing note to Heather Humphreys, who is acting minister for justice while McEntee is on maternity leave, civil servants said defamation is a “complex” area of law. Completion of its review had been delayed by judgments from other courts, including the European Court of Human Rights, and by urgent work on Brexit and Covid-19.
“The report of the review is now being finalised for publication,” it said. “Work will then turn to preparing a general scheme of a Defamation (Amendment) Bill for government approval,” it said.
Earlier this year, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders noted that “long-standing promises” by successive Irish governments to reform the Defamation Act 2009 had been “left unfulfilled”. It said this helped to sustain “a prohibitive atmosphere for journalists reporting stories involving high-profile public figures and significant private interests”.
Speaking at a seminar about Irish defamation laws in 2019, Paula Mullooly, RTE’s director of legal affairs since earlier that year, said media organisations are now not pursuing legitimate stories even when there is a genuine public interest.