RTE’s top staff forced to do interviews – to keep their jobs
Broadcaster also accused of dumbing down news
RTÉ correspondents are having to reapply for their jobs under moves designed to shake up the newsroom, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The broadcaster’s western correspondent, Pat McGrath, has already reapplied and has been reappointed for another three-year term.
Other correspondents who will soon have to follow suit include science and technology correspondent Will Goodbody and Dáil correspondent Martina Fitzgerald.
RTÉ insiders say it is by no means certain that all correspondents will be reappointed.
‘Used to be a job for life – now it’s three years’
One insider said: ‘Before, domestic correspondents were in a jobs-for-life situation – once you were appointed, that was it. But now they’re only given three-year contracts with a view to moving them on if it doesn’t work out or they don’t work hard enough.’
Another newsroom member said there was a lot of anger about it.
‘This was decided a while ago for all correspondents appointed in the past five years, but people aren’t happy about it now that it’s actually being implemented.
‘There’s also anger at the huge pay differences between correspondents. One Donnybrook-based correspondent is paid two and a half times more than everybody else and he’s hardly ever on air.’
RTÉ confirmed yesterday that correspondents are having to reapply for their jobs.
A spokeswoman said: ‘The RTÉ Washington correspondent has historically always been a fixed-term assignment, and so was the previous European correspondent role.
‘Back in 2013 this model was rolled out to other RTÉ News correspondency roles, which are all now advertised and offered to internal staff on a fixed-term assignment basis. This was agreed with the NUJ at the time five years ago to allow and encourage more opportunities for RTÉ staff.’
It comes as the broadcaster is being accused of a dumbing down of its news services ‘across the board’ by its own staff. The RTÉ staff comments come after head of news Jon Williams made a presentation in Leinster House detailing the broadcaster’s plans for political coverage.
Mr Williams, formerly with ABC News and BBC News, is credited with introducing many recent changes in RTÉ’s news structure, including the new Six One news format with Keelin Shanley and Caitriona Perry and taking much of the news content online.
Last week, Williams told TDs that the long-running Oireachtas Report programme would likely move from TV to online.
It follows RTÉ’s recent announcement that it is to close its 24-hour news channel, RTÉ News Now, as the organisation seeks to cut costs.
Similarly, news services on 2FM have also seen the axe fall. RTÉ confirmed to the MoS this week that the station no longer has news bulletins from 7pm to 7am.
Staff at TG4’s HQ in Connemara have also reacted angrily to plans to move the filming of its nightly news bulletin from Connemara to Donnybrook – and pre-record it.
Journalists and editors have told the MoS that the broadcaster is using the excuse of a lack of resources to do ‘less difficult stories’ and not cover others at all.
One senior editor said: ‘There are only two foreign stories now that RTÉ will look at, Trump and Brexit. Those and the odd earthquake.’
A senior journalist told the MoS this week that the message from RTÉ bosses was that the more human interest stories the better. ‘They want everything to have a personal angle,’ she said.
Dónal Mulligan, a lecturer in journalism at Dublin City University, said that a change of tack by RTÉ ‘should not surprise us’.
He said: ‘Just as many newspapers have been accused of ‘clickbait’ stories, celebrity gossip, or deliberately controversial topics to reel in viewers in a media space full of alternatives, it shouldn’t surprise us that other traditional media forms like radio and TV might do the same.’
‘Trump, Brexit and the odd earthquake’