Religion is the source of most complaints to Irish Broadcasting Corporation (RTE)

Religion is the source of most complaints to RTÉ, according to documents published under Freedom of Information requests.

According to the freedom of information request sent by the Irish Examiner newspaper to the Department of Communications, RTÉ's treatment of Fr Kevin Reynolds on the Prime Time Investigates programme, its decision to scale back on the broadcasting of Mass on Radio na Gaeltachta, and its continued broadcast of the Angelus, dominated the bulk of complaints against the state broadcaster over the past two years.

A breakdown of the 25 complaints showed that six of the complaints related to RTÉ's decision to broadcast the Prime Time documentary, Mission to Prey, despite offers by Fr Reynolds, wrongly accused of raping a young woman and fathering a child, to undertake a paternity test.

Fr Reynolds, who is parish priest of Ahascragh in County Galway, later won a defamation case against RTÉ and the state broadcaster was later forced to issue two public apologies to him.

Five letters related to the broadcasting of the Angelus at both noon and 6:00pm with it being the described as a, ''blatant contradiction of RTÉ's statutory obligation of impartiality.’’

The Angelus, which has been broadcast on RTÉ for over 60 years, has long been a source of controversy.  The former Northern Ireland First Minister and Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble famously described Ireland as the only country in the world where the 6:00pm evening news does not start on time.

Interestingly, Radio na Gaelteacta's decision in 2010, to reduce the broadcast of the Mass in Irish to just once a month, which due to public pressure was later reversed, also attracted three complaints.

The station famously received a rebuke at the time from the then Minister for the Gaelteact Eamon O'Cuiv over the station reneging on its responsibilities to minorities under the 2007 Broadcasting Act.