Amended Folens interview to be aired

An interview with the late Albert Folens will be aired on television tomorrow after the High Court settled an action taken by…

An interview with the late Albert Folens will be aired on television tomorrow after the High Court settled an action taken by the education publisher's wife against RTE, over its programme Ireland's Nazis.

Juliette Folens, whose 86-year-old husband died four years ago, was granted an interim injunction on Thursday restraining RTÉ from broadcasting details of an interview given to the Sunday Tribune 20 years ago by Mr Folens.

The taped interview given to Senan Moloney who worked for the paper at the time was used in the final part of a two-part documentary Hidden History: Ireland's Nazis,to be aired tomorrow night on RTE One.

Under the terms of today's settlement the programme will be aired as scheduled and will include extracts from the interview.

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However, it is understood that a short segment of an enactment of an alleged interrogation will not be broadcast as intended.

A statement from Mrs Folens will also appear in the documentary refuting claims that her late husband was in the Gestapo.

After the settlement the Folens family issued a statement saying Mr Folens had not been "a member of the Nazi Party; was never a member of, or employed by the Gestapo; and never worked in their headquarters in Brussels".

"Mr Folens never wore a uniform of the SS or German Sicherheitsdienst SD and his only military involvement was to train as a member of the Flemish Legion.

"Because of his membership of the nationalist Flemish Legion he was charged, along with 57,000 others, by the Belgian authorities.

"He was sentenced to ten years in prison because of this membership and not because of any war crimes. Mr Folens was not guilty of any war crimes whatsoever," the statement said.

It added that Mr Folens worked as a translator of newspaper articles from Flemish into German.

"He was never an interpreter, as has been suggested, and the Folens family find his portrayal as being engaged in interrogation and torture totally reprehensible."

In court last week, the Folens family sought an order for discovery of the second and final part of the documentary.

John Rogers SC for the family said when the interview was a given a representative of the Sunday Tribune, Mr Molony and Mr Folens signed an agreement giving the late publisher access to any article before publication and a right of reply.

Mr Folens founded the education publishers Folens after he moved to Ireland following the second World War. The company became one Ireland's leading publishers of schoolbooks and has been one of the best-known brand names in Irish education for generations.