Ireland’s public broadcasting service, RTÉ, was evacuated this Friday after receiving a bomb threat by email, in a context of the proliferation of similar notices aimed at airports and flights in different parts of Europe over the past few days.
RTÉ itself confirmed that all staff at the corporation, including presenters, had to leave the premises. As a result, the usual schedule was interrupted and the channel opted to air already recorded programs in order to keep the signal.
The notice was not limited to public television. Other Irish media outlets were also affected, such as the editorial office of the newspaper "Irish Independent," which proceeded to evacuate its reporters, or Virgin Media Television, which acknowledged having received security alerts even though it decided not to evacuate its workers.
The Irish Police stated that it is aware of threats aimed at several media outlets in the country and that it has opened investigations into the reported incidents. The Minister of Justice, Jim O'Callaghan, described these episodes as "hybrid attacks.
"These threats are being taken with extreme seriousness and are now the subject of an active investigation by the Police.
Europe has increasingly become a target of different forms of hybrid attacks, whose complexity and sophistication continue to grow," the Irish Justice minister added in remarks made from Montenegro, where he is taking part in a European meeting.
In an official note, the Irish Government described the threats against the media as "very serious" and stressed that the Police "immediately adopted the necessary preventive measures," insisting that, in situations like this, the absolute priority is "the safety and protection of the affected people".
"False threats, like these, cause fear, distress and disruptions in people’s everyday life and activities, and absolutely do not pursue any positive objective," the executive led by Michéal Martin denounced.
At the same time, the Government acknowledged that for now the authorship of these notices is unknown, "whether it involves individuals or a centralized or coordinated operation". "However, these threats occur after the continuous disruption of air traffic across Europe caused by similar threats, and everything points to the possibility that it could be a coordinated campaign to cause disruptions," he said, after detailing that the police, Defense, cybersecurity, and aviation forces "are working to determine who the people responsible are".
Irish authorities stressed that "permanent contact" is maintained with European security partners and reiterated that "every possible effort will be made to identify those responsible and hold them accountable".
The threat against RTÉ comes right after that Thursday, around a dozen flights between European airports received messages with similar content, including three connections that departed from Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport or had as their destination the Spanish capital.
Previously, Northern Ireland had already experienced a similar episode a few weeks earlier, when hundreds of schools were the subject of false "Islamist" alarms, in which the presence of explosive devices in educational centers was warned about.