A big week ahead for RTE

by Gemma Smyth, Managing Director

Last month will not only be remembered as the hottest June on record in Ireland, but it will also go on record as the month when the biggest crisis to ever rock our national broadcaster emerged. The RTE scandal, highlighting hidden payments and lavish spending, has led to severe criticism of the management and governance at the public service broadcaster. In this article, our Managing Director, Gemma Smyth shares her thoughts on what will be a big week ahead for RTE.

I know I am not alone in the fact that I have been completely glued to watching and reading the reports and revelations about the ongoing crisis at RTE which enters its third week this week. For a communications professional, it offers so much food for thought when it comes to crisis communications, internal communications and the impact of organisational culture. It also raises important debates around the future of public service media and casts a critical eye on brand ambassadorships and endorsements.

It is the media story that keeps on giving and it looks like the fire is a long way from being put out. The flames are further fuelled by competitor media outlets hungry to get a pop at the national broadcaster, disgruntled employees who rightly see that now is the time to lift the lid on the toxic culture in their workplace and self-serving questions from politicians designed to generate click-bait and sensationalist headlines. Many of the issues - such as the flip-flop debacle - are in my opinion much-ado-about-nothing but, all of the small revelations are adding to the overall chaos and continue to feed into the must-watch nature of the story.

On a human level, it is hard not to feel for those individuals whose names have become synonymous with the crisis, and as a result whose personal lives and careers have been dragged through the mud. Ryan Tubridy, Dee Forbes, Noel Kelly and Geraldine O’Leary are among those who have been vilified in the media and on social media, and mostly just for doing their job. As a talent agent, Noel Kelly’s job is to negotiate the best salary for his clients. As commercial director, Geraldine O’Leary is reported to have brought in revenue of €1.65bn in her time at RTE and just 1% of this was spent on client entertainment, which is credible in any business.

However, there is no denying that there is much wrong at the heart of the RTE system and what we are witnessing is the unravelling of a toxic culture of secrecy, entitlement and imbalance. It is understandable that the hardworking staff across the organisation are totally demoralised and deeply hurt at the unfairness of not having access to adequate staff or proper equipment when a number of individuals are paid excessive salaries and thousands have been spent entertaining clients at lavish parties and events. Ultimately, as a public service broadcaster, the primary function of RTE should be to deliver well-researched news and cover the issues that matter to people. If this function isn’t adequately resourced, staff will not feel motivated and supported to do their job and so this fundamental role will fail.

Another big issue which has raised its head and has become fodder for many media articles is the additional income and benefits afforded to many RTE stars in the form of brand ambassadorships, speaking engagements and brand endorsements. Over the years, we have worked with countless RTE broadcasters to MC or facilitate events on behalf of clients, and these fees would generally be agreed through an external agent. The benefits in engaging established broadcasters to host events is obvious. They bring an extra professionalism and finesse to any event, but let's face it they also bring the element of celebrity, and in Ireland we have a very small pool to choose from.

There is no doubt RTE talent can earn a significant income in addition to their public sector salary and there has been much criticism of this, and their agents for facilitating such arrangements.  Yesterday, Matt Cooper wrote in the Business Post that, outside of his work as journalist and broadcaster, he also takes on paid-for speaking engagements and work. His justification was that for all the media outlets he works with, he is not a salaried employee, but a contractor and so does not have access to pension or other employee benefits.

I am not sure that he needs to justify this however. And I also don’t believe that RTE stars should be limited from work outside of RTE, just because they are in receipt of an RTE salary. I do however think that RTE needs to regulate this work more closely and have clear and strict guidelines on work outside of RTE similar to the BBC’s approach outlined by Jennifer O’Connell in Saturday’s Irish Times. Additionally, though there is an onus on the broadcasters themselves to check their own moral compass in terms of the commercial partnerships they engage in, and as always our advice to brands is to ensure that any ambassadors they work with are the absolute right fit for their brand or product, and that the relationship is an authentic one. 

This is a big week for RTE. The new Director General, Kevin Bakhurst has come out of the traps this morning, announcing that he is standing down the executive board, introducing a new register of interest to capture broadcasters’ external commercial relationships, and is reviewing salary scales. It is also a big week for Ryan Tubridy and Noel Kelly who will appear before the Public Accounts Committee and the Oireachtas Committee on media tomorrow. This will provide a welcome opportunity for both to give their side of the story. I just hope that they are asked intelligent questions with the aim of clearing up some of the as yet unanswered questions, rather than delving into topics which will serve to give the politicians the most airtime.

I for one hope that Kevin Bakhurst can achieve the ambition laid out in his statement this morning "to listening, to being open and transparent, to strictly adhering to revised and rigorous governance processes and procedures, to being accountable and to delivering a public service to be proud of".

I also hope that the committed and dedicated teams of talented people in Donnybrook get to continue doing what they do best and are given the opportunity to carry on producing quality, well-researched, robust content and debates which we need to support our democracy.