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A screen grab from RTÉ's 'Profiting from Prostitution' documentary, which was intended to be aired as a Prime Time Investigates show before that series was suspended. RTÉ

RTÉ to air prostitution documentary originally meant for 'Prime Time Investigates'

An hour-long programme on prostitution will air on Tuesday night, though the ‘Prime Time Investigates’ series remains suspended.

RTÉ IS TO BROADCAST an hour-long documentary, originally intended as part of the next series of Prime Time Investigates, this week – marking the national broadcaster’s first investigative programming since the fallout from the Fr Kevin Reynolds affair.

The programme, to be aired on Tuesday evening under the Prime Time branding, is said to expose people profiting from the sex trade in Ireland, and report on the growing demand for paid sex with younger, foreign and vulnerable women.

The investigation, from reporter Paul Maguire, discovers prostitutes – often being advertised as ‘escorts’ – being available in every county, and includes an interview with a 19-year-old woman who works almost 100 hours a week in a Co Kildare room which she rarely leaves.

The show marks a return to screens, of sorts, for the Prime Time Investigates series – with the show having been originally intended to air as part of a new series from that strand, which has since been suspended.

RTÉ said the programme had been researched and partly filmed before the broadcaster had opted to shelve the Prime Time Investigates strand, pending an investigation into editorial processes in its current affairs division.

That review – carried out by the Press Ombudsman, Professor John Horgan – was completed in December and is awaiting publication.

Production of Tuesday’s programme had been undertaken by the Prime Time team and had continued under the supervision of Steve Carson, who is acting Editor of Current Affairs.

‘Serious issues of criminality’

In a statement RTÉ said it had decided to air the programme now “because of the serious issues of criminality and exploitation of vulnerable women involved in the sex industry”.

The full-time Current Affairs editor, Ken O’Shea, and the managing director of RTÉ News Ed Mulhall, stepped aside in November pending the completion of Horgan’s review and that of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which is separately investigating the broadcast of the programme about Fr Kevin Reynolds.

RTÉ had agreed to pay damages to Fr Reynolds following a broadcast in May which falsely claimed he had raped a teenage girl and fathered a child while working as a missionary in Kenya in the 1980s.

The broadcaster later admitted the story was “wholly untrue” and it was revealed that the station went ahead with the programme despite Fr Reynolds denying the allegations and legal correspondence to the same effect.

The executive producer of the Reynolds show, Brian Páircéir, and reporter Aoife Kavanagh, have not been contributing to on-air programming since the admission. The producer of the programme, Mark Lappin, had left RTÉ in the meantime and now works for CNN.

RTÉ said the BAI had been informed, as a courtesy, of the decision to broadcast Tuesday night’s documentary. The programme had been “finalised and checked in the context of the recommendations by Professor Horgan”.

Horgan’s findings are to be published following the completion of the BAI’s inquiry.

Read: BAI launches inquiry into defamatory Prime Time Investigates programme

More: RTÉ reshuffle sees Miriam’s husband heading up current affairs

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20 Comments
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    Mute gingerman
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    Feb 5th 2012, 11:05 AM

    Oh no. More cheap sensationalist TV. Why not legalise prostitution, generate some tax revenue, give more protection to sex workers, but most of all make the sordid sexually repressed gits who make these kind of documentaries permanently redundant

    203
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    Mute Paddy O Donnell
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    Feb 5th 2012, 12:40 PM

    legalising onlyempowers the current crop of gangsters controlling it to enflict more misery on their unfortunate, captive assets.

    49
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    Mute Rob McDonagh
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    Feb 5th 2012, 4:36 PM

    Yeah. Cause its up to RTE to legislate for sex workers. If they didnt make these docs people would complain more so. Sensationalist comment more like.

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    Mute Wendy
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    Feb 7th 2012, 6:02 PM

    The only thing full legalisation did in Holland was set a ground for more sex trafficking and forced prostitution, conclusion, it doesnt work.

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    Mute Burned Toast
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    Feb 5th 2012, 11:07 AM

    And the News of the World will be relaunched as the Sun on Sunday soon…

    Such hypocrisy. If you’re suspended, you’re suspended. Guess that doesn’t apply to state bodies then.

    102
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    Mute Hotmamasarah Murphy
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    Feb 5th 2012, 11:45 AM

    My ex used have a Prostitute outside the corner of his flat in Cork, the traffic on a friday and saturday night to see her was unbelievable, men in their family cars, the baby-seat in the back, availing of her services. The law needs to start focusing on getting these women off the streets and targeting those who are using prostitutes by naming and shaming. Setting up video surveillance of hot spots so number plates can be registered and those then can be charged for solicitation.

    94
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    Mute random
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    Feb 5th 2012, 11:22 AM

    I’ll be interested to see this after reading about that “between the sheets” book the other day and some of the comments on that article. It made me realise that I really don’t know a lot about what these people are experiencing.

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    Mute random
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    Feb 5th 2012, 11:25 AM

    My first RTE content in many years incidentally. Guess I’ll deserve to pay the media tax after all…

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    Mute Imran Ali
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    Feb 5th 2012, 2:29 PM

    Are we really expected to believe that most of these women are trafficked and few do this ‘work’ of their own volition?

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    Mute Foggy Lad
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    Feb 5th 2012, 3:38 PM

    just look at how many pimps in the UK are Muslims it really shows how Muslim men regard women as nothing more than a possession not much more valuable than a car or a cow.

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    Mute Aranthos Faroth
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    Feb 5th 2012, 5:53 PM

    Prostitution is just damn disgusting!

    The people that use the ‘service’ should be named and shamed, they are no better than rapists in my eyes.

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    Mute Rob
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    Feb 5th 2012, 6:00 PM

    i don’t see whats so bad about the nature of prostitution – to me it seems that most of the stigma comes from having to stand on street corners or run a brothel out of an apartment!

    i dont see how legalisign it would be that much different to strip clubs (yea i’ve no real issue with those either!) – makes it safer for the girls / guys involved and regulates it in terms of health and safety and most importantly taxes!

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    Mute my politics
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    Feb 6th 2012, 1:02 AM

    I dated a girl in a sunny country far far away. I owned 2 pizzerias and doing very well and she was an18 year old lapdancer. I worked 7 days a week employed 15 staff and payed my taxes. She worked 4 to 5 nights a week at a club payed no taxes and earned almost double of what I earned. She was not a victim of anything nore was she trafficked. She was a good ‘ol home grown girl having a good time. Ireland needs to get out of the dark ages and join reality. Prostitution is one of the safest types of sex anyone can have especially for a guy. No false rape allegations, its always with a condom, she’s not the last drunk girl in a pub and its also probably cheaper than buying a girl drinks all night. Catch a wake up Ireland and all your feminists.

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    Mute T M
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    Feb 5th 2012, 1:49 PM

    If one legalises prostitution it goes underground. Just look at the Dutch model and recent comments the mayor has said. Also the Swedish model does not work. The turn off the blue light website is run by pimps who think its perfectly ok to write a review on said experience with an escort! Which some believe. 70% of women in prostitution come from a background of rape incest abuse and neglect.

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    Mute Nigel Briganti
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    Feb 5th 2012, 5:27 PM

    70% I’d say 70% of the whole population have suffered from rape, neglect, incest & abuse.

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    Mute Eire
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    Feb 5th 2012, 3:45 PM

    Has Curran & his cronies resigned from RTE? Who is in charge now ? What checks & balances are there? who has been disciplined? & what monies are they still been paid to these employees I continue to be suspicious of news investigation giving their abuse of broadcasting powers , pathetic apology & the inaction of the RTE board!

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    Mute Fiachra Maolmordha Ó Raghallaigh
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    Feb 5th 2012, 9:24 PM

    We really need to rethink our attitudes to prostitution and hardcore pornography. The former is illegal and completely taboo, while the latter is now legally available to anyone with and internet connection. Of course there is a legal technicality, when it comes to pornography – the actors and actresses are paid to be filmed, not to have sex. Pornographic actors also claim that they pick their partners. But seriously, does anyone really accept this? On the first point, the actresses would not be filmed or paid if they did not have sex. As for the second, prostitutes are actually free to turn away customers.

    It makes zero sense for hardcore pornography to be legal and prostitution illegal, and vice versa.

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    Mute gingerman
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    Feb 5th 2012, 8:41 PM

    Aranthos. WTF?

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    Mute gingerman
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    Feb 6th 2012, 8:18 AM

    @ my politics. Da durty hoar

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    Mute Karl Doyle
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    Feb 5th 2012, 6:40 PM

    They’ll find a way out of anything if it makes them money.

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