Management in the RTÉ newsroom have sought to reassure staff over their concerns about an ad being made to promote the State broadcaster’s news and current affairs output.
It emerged in recent days that some RTÉ staff raised concerns about the use of props such as plants in the footage, and the fact that extras were used in some of the shots.
In a circular sent to staff on Wednesday, RTÉ management said that, before the recent filming took place, they had a “lengthy discussion” with the team making the campaign to ensure it captured “an authentic picture of the newsroom”.
“The campaign team requested that we either provide several journalists to be available to sit in shot for four to six hours on the day or, if that wasn’t possible, that extras could be used.
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“Given the daily demands on staff in the newsroom, we did not believe it would be possible to free up a significant number of journalists for this length of time to be in the background of a shot.”
Management said the campaign team assured them any people in the background “would be blurred”.
“It was agreed that extras would be used and that when filming was completed we would have an opportunity to view the footage in the edit and that anything we were not comfortable with would not be used.”
In the circular to staff, management also noted that “concerns have been expressed about the placement of some plants in shot”.
“Minor tweaks like placing plants in shot are regularly used by our journalists and producers when filming interviews,” management said.
“As you know, green screens or shots in our regional and foreign studios are used to indicate a reporter’s location – these are long-established production techniques.
“If there is a view that this practice needs to cease in the production of news and current affairs content, we are open to discussing that,” management added.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) chapel at RTÉ had written to management in advance of the circular being issued, asking them to pause the production of the ad pending further discussions with staff representatives.
Senior RTÉ executives defended the ad when appearing before the Oireachtas media committee on Wednesday. The broadcaster’s head of news, Deirdre McCarthy, said there have been “factual inaccuracies and misinformation, and a lack of context” in media reporting of it.
Ms McCarthy said the total cost of the advert was €77,000 plus VAT. Filming has not been completed, she added.
RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst told the committee he did not have the figures for how much the extras were paid, but the advert “cost less than €100,000″ to make.
Committee chair Alan Kelly, the Labour TD, said the advert has “annoyed a lot of people” and the general public thinks it is “bananas”.
