Mr. Kevin Bakhurst:

I thank the Chairman and members of the joint committee for inviting us in. Every week RTE produces more than forty hours of live news and current affairs programming across its radio and television schedules, within which programme teams and editors make thousands of editorial calls and judgments. All editorial staff work to RTE’s journalism guidelines, which were updated only last year.

These provide detailed guidance on a range of journalistic issues and are rooted in overarching editorial principles of trust, accuracy, impartiality, integrity, fairness, public interest and accountability. RTE's guidelines also reflect and take account of the requirements in the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI's code of fairness, objectivity and impartiality in news and current affairs. Prepared under section 42 of the Broadcasting Act 2009, the code sets out the rules, principles and guidance for all broadcasters in respect of fairness, objectivity and impartiality in news and current affairs programming. This code was most recently updated in 2013.

In such a dynamic news and current affairs environment, inevitably we do not get everything right. For the most part, however, we try to correct mistakes quickly, either in the programme in question or soon after in another programme. The BAI provides clear guidance for viewers and listeners if they consider a programme or broadcaster to be in breach of any of its codes and they want to make a formal complaint. RTE is required to have, and has, clear guidance for people who wish to make a formal complaint regarding any of its output. Sometimes, formal complaints are lodged regarding our programming. Relatively infrequently, these are upheld by the BAI. RTE received a total of 114 such complaints in respect of programmes broadcast in 2014. Of those, just two were fully upheld, with four partially upheld.

In the case of political parties and the Government, our editors and programme makers and I are constantly in discussions with party and Government representatives - sometimes very robust discussions - regarding our editorial choices, guests and so on. That permanent tension between the political system and RTE is a healthy thing and one that is experienced by other media organisations.

RTE consciously combines a decentralised editorial structure with clear lines of editorial responsibility and accountability. At a high level, RTE has a number of editorial divisions, namely, news and current affairs, television and radio. Each has its own editorial structures and systems, with high levels of editorial independence at the individual programme level. Each week, the relevant managing director chairs editorial board meetings within his or her division to review the week past and preview the week coming. All programme areas in RTE submit their plans for the next week to the weekly corporate editorial board, which is attended by senior editorial representatives from all areas and is chaired by the director general, who is RTE's editor-in-chief, or by me if the director general is not available. The corporate editorial board's meeting reviews output from the past week and looks ahead.

For the purposes of today's discussion, it is worth going into a little more detail for members on the editorial structures in the news and current affairs division and how they impact on editorial decision making and coverage. Regarding news output, the agenda for coverage, or news list, is drawn up daily by the news editors. This list is informed by material gathered for the news diary of expected events prepared by the news desk, by forward plans given by individual programme areas, by suggestions of possible assignments from the specialist and regional correspondents and by the news editors' own judgment. Regarding political coverage, in addition to the political correspondents and Oireachtas staff, the political assignments editor, Ms Deirdre McCarthy, who is present, makes a significant contribution. The news list is presented to two main news conferences during the day, those being in the morning and early afternoon. From these come the main story assignments. I usually attend both news conferences.

The television news programme editors and the radio news bulletin editors select their material from this list of assignments throughout the day and, in the case of television, often augment it with live interviews in light of unfolding news stories and pre-planned feature material. The content for the radio news programmes, such as "Morning Ireland" and "News at One", is selected by the programmes' editorial teams, often incorporating material from the central news assignments. Any editorial issue relating to coverage is often reviewed at the morning news conferences and at a weekly futures meeting.

Television current affairs, led by its managing editor, Mr. David Nally, who is present, operates as a separately managed unit within the news and current affairs division. Its editorial selections are made by the programme teams within the department - "Claire Byrne Live" and "Prime Time" - and co-ordinated through the weekly editorial meeting, which is often chaired by me and reviews output and discusses future coverage.

RTE's investigations unit operates within television current affairs and leads RTE's investigative reporting. Such reports are typically aired within "Prime Time" specials, in one-offs such as "Above the Law" this week and, on occasion, within radio programmes, for example, "Today with Sean O'Rourke" and "Drivetime". Both of these and the weekend programmes - "The Marian Finucane Show", "Saturday with Claire Byrne" and "Sunday with Miriam" on RTE Radio 1 - are managed by the head of RTE Radio 1, Mr. Tom McGuire, who is also present. He answers in turn to the managing director of radio, Mr. Jim Jennings, who has similar editorial responsibility for the current affairs output of RTE Raidió na Gaeltachta.

Given the nature of much of the programming on Radio 1, there is daily and weekly co-ordination between news and current affairs and Radio 1 editorial management. Similarly, there is co-ordination, typically at the weekly corporate editorial board, in respect of current affairs or political items and guests on "The Late Late Show", "The Saturday Night Show" and documentary programming.

As members will know, during election and referendum campaigns, RTE adopts a more formal structure of editorial management. An election steering group oversees all output, monitors levels of representation across programming and deals with complaints and representations.

It should be clear to members from what I have described that there is no one single editorial direction when it comes to RTE content. In terms of news, the story selection has a variety of editorial inputs from a range of different teams throughout the day. In terms of the programmes that emanate from any division of RTE, programme editors and teams make their independent selections of what to feature and prioritise, often in competition with other RTE output. All output is overseen by an editorial structure that allows and encourages diversity, editorial debate and challenge. While we may from time to time make mistakes, misjudgments or omissions, such an editorial structure would make it virtually impossible for political bias to be present across RTE's output.

I thank the committee and would be happy to answer further questions.