Gallagher claims that RTE cost him the presidential election in official complaint

New row engulfs state broadcaster after 'Prime Time' priest libel

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Irish state broadcaster RTE has been accused of more editorial negligence as independent candidate Sean Gallagher claims the station cost him the recent presidential election.

Gallagher has lodged an official complaint against RTE over its handling of a tweet he claims cost him the presidency. His demand for a public hearing into the decision making process comes as the fall-out intensifies from the Fr Kevin Reynolds libel case.

The broadcaster is already at the eye of a public storm over its handling of a libellous claim that missionary priest Fr Reynolds raped a teenage Kenyan girl in 1982, made her pregnant and abandoned both mother and child.

In the latest blow to the station, Gallagher has lodged a 32 page official complaint with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland over his infamous 'Prime Time' row with Sinn Fein candidate Martin McGuinness.

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Favorite to be elected president before the show, Gallagher’s hopes were blown out of the water when McGuinness revealed on the live TV debate that the independent candidate had acted as a "bagman" for Fianna Fail at a fund-raising dinner in Dundalk.

The program also broadcast a tweet which claimed that the donor would be produced at a Dublin press conference the next day. 

The tweet, allegedly from a Sinn Fein source, read: “The man that Gallagher took the cheque from will be at a press conference tomorrow. #aras11.”

In his submission, lodged to the Broadcasting Authority last Tuesday, Gallagher claims that the "false tweet" and the Prime Time program "ambushed" his candidacy.

The Sunday Independent newspaper also reports that Gallagher is demanding an oral and/or public hearing into the behaviour of RTE management and their decision to publicly broadcast the tweet which later transpired to be a hoax.

The paper reports that Gallagher is also seeking a "formal apology" from the broadcaster.

An RTE spokesman confirmed to the Sunday Independent that it had received the complaint.

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