Deadline: Director-General Kevin Bakhurst Stands Down Executive Board Over Pay Scandal

Story from Deadline:

Kevin Bakhurst, the newly appointed director-general of Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE, has stood down the company’s entire executive board following a pay scandal involving the broadcaster’s lead presenter.

Bakhurst announced the move in an email to RTE staff on Monday morning, his first day in office. In the email, Bakhurst said an interim leadership team would be appointed to continue running the organization before a permanent board is set, the BBC reported.

Bakhurst, who had stints in senior roles at the BBC and UK media regulator Ofcom, took over from former director general Dee Forbes, who resigned last month. Forbes’s resignation followed after it was discovered that RTÉ made undisclosed payments to its top presenter. An audit of the organization’s finances found presenter Ryan Tubridy was paid €345,000 ($378,000) more than what was declared publicly between 2017 and 2022.

Tubridy presented the Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio 1 alongside The Late Late Show and The Late Late Toy Show from 2009 to 2023, three popular primetime broadcasts. The scandal around the undisclosed payments has since escalated following multiple interventions from the Irish government. Last week, the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar said trust in the broadcaster could not be restored without change from within the organization.

The Irish government has also announced what it described as an independent “root and branch examination” to review the broadcaster’s culture and governance. Bakhurst has since met the Irish culture minister Catherine Martin.

In his email to staff, Bakhurst said “Change will be essential if we are to rebuild trust in public service broadcasting in Ireland and in RTE,” ITV reported.

“There can be no repeat of the siloed and, at times, secretive decision-making that has been at the root of the shameful events of the past weeks. As custodians of public money, our financial integrity must be on a par with our editorial integrity,” he said.

Bakhurst previously served as RTE’s managing director of news and current affairs from 2012 to 2016 and deputy director general for six months before leaving in 2016.