An episode of RTE’s documentary series “Dr. Cassidy’s Casebook” has been withdrawn from the RTE player and will be edited to remove “misinformation” before being shown again, Gript can reveal.
The episode, in which it was claimed that “Until the 70s, women were defined as chattels in our constitution” was withdrawn after Sunday Independent Journalist Eilis O’Hanlon contacted the broadcaster to point out that the claim was entirely false.
Speaking to Gript Media, Ms. O’Hanlon pointed out that the false claim that Irish women were defined as “chattel” in the constitution arose from an apparent misunderstanding of a court case that took place in the 1970s:
“The speaker on the programme seemed to be referring to an obscure law known as “criminal conversation” which briefly hit the headlines in the 70s due to an infamous legal case reported by newspapers as “the case of the chattel wife”, Ms O’Hanlon said. “This led to a campaign against the law, the basis of the campaign being that it was unconstitutional, making the claim that it was grounded in the Constitution all the more absurd.”
“This, of course, is simply not true. It’s misinformation. Fake news. And again, as I pointed out in my TV column at the time, it could have been easily checked.”
O’Hanlon then wrote to the programme makers, Pounce Pictures, as well as the solicitor representing the programme’s legal advisors, but got no response. She also contacted RTE’s head of factual and documentaries, Grainne McAleer, and the programme’s director. Again, she got no response.
It was only when she contacted the new RTE Director General, Kevin Bakhurst, that a response was received.
“We have asked the producers to remove the reference to the constitution from the episode and will use the corrected version both on Player and for any future broadcast”, Ms O’Hanlon was told.
The episode has been withdrawn from the RTE player.
In recent months, RTE has claimed that its continued existence is vital to combat so-called “misinformation and disinformation” in the Irish political sphere.