Key facts
- A threat was sent to RTE by email shortly before 0900 GMT saying a bomb would go off within 45 minutes, an RTE radio reporter said.
- Newstalk presenter Claire Byrne said on air the threat against that station had been deemed a hoax.
- RTE's campus in south Dublin remained closed while police checked it building by building, an RTE reporter said.
- Gardaí said they were aware of a threat made against media organizations in Ireland and Europe and would investigate.
- The presenter of RTE Radio One's mid morning news show said he understood the email purported to come from the people behind hoax bomb threats that disrupted flights across Europe on Thursday.
Offices of Irish media groups including national broadcaster RTE were evacuated on November 6 after bomb threats, and a presenter on one of the affected radio stations, Newstalk, said the threat had been deemed a hoax.
Newstalk resumed programming at 1000 GMT after staff were told they could return to the building in central Dublin, presenter Claire Byrne said on air. The Irish Independent newspaper group reported that its offices in the capital had also been evacuated.
A reporter for RTE radio said after news programming went back on air from an outside broadcasting unit that a threat was sent to the broadcaster by email shortly before 0900 GMT that a bomb was going to go off within 45 minutes. The presenter of RTE Radio One's mid morning news show said he understood the email purported to be from the same people behind hoax bomb threats that disrupted dozens of passenger flights across Europe on Thursday.
"It is worrying, and we take the threat seriously," Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said in a telephone interview with RTE shortly after the more than one hour interruption to its programming ended. "It just illustrates how relatively simple it can be to cause disruption and to undermine the normal operation of society through unconventional activities of this kind, which are designed to cause disruption, designed to cause fear and anxiety. We have to remain calm and very focused on this."
RTE's campus in south Dublin remained closed while police checked it building by building, the reporter said. Gardaí said they were aware of a threat made against media organizations in Ireland and Europe, were liaising with the affected Irish media organizations and would investigate the threats.