‘Cocaine’ Author Under Fire

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‘Cocaine’ Author Under Fire

November 23, 2007

By Paddy Clancy

IRISH broadcaster RTE is probing one of its own programs presented by an author who claims she recorded a government minister admitting he took cocaine.

The author, former television researcher Justine Delaney Wilson, said she made a digital recording of the interview but that the recording no longer exists.

The controversy has rocketed previously unknown Delaney Wilson into national prominence.

Her book The High Society, and interviews she claims to have carried out for it, were the core source for a two-part television documentary which she presented on RTE.

The book’s publishers Gill and MacMillan, and RTE program chiefs, described her as an investigative journalist. But she is unknown to anybody of any consequence in Irish journalism.

RTE came under increasing pressure in the past week to defend claims in the documentary.

The station admitted, “There are no audio recordings of the politician. In the case of the politician, RTE television relied upon the extensive contemporaneous notes which fully record this individual’s testimony.”

RTE now faces questions about the editorial checks it put in place to substantiate Delaney Wilson’s written notes.

She previously claimed that she recorded the anonymous drug-taking admission by a minister in October 2006. She said it and other taped admissions were locked away in a safe.

But as the pressure for more details mounted she admitted the recording no longer exists.

Drugs minister Pat Carey called on RTE to provide the Gardai (police) with whatever information it has about the unnamed politician. While saying he did not believe the allegation, Carey said he was “throwing down the gauntlet to RTE to either put up or shut up.”

“There are no public interest grounds on which RTE can withhold this information from the Gardai. The station has to say whether or not it is willing to cooperate with law enforcement agencies,” Carey added.

Kevin Dawson, the RTE executive who commissioned the controversial documentary, said he knew the minister’s identity.

Later Dawson, RTE’s commissioning editor for factual programs, admitted that Delaney Wilson had questions to answer.

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