The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has criticised as "unfair" and "grossly unacceptable" the recent RTE Prime Time documentary on the killing of Mr John Carthy by the Garda's Emergency Response Unit (ERU) in Co Longford.
The association also criticised remarks on RTE's Questions And Answers by a former minister for justice, Mrs Nora Owen, about the Garda's internal inquiry. She asked if it was right to appoint an officer to head the inquiry who was junior to the officer who had led the operation.
An internal Garda inquiry headed by a superintendent, in conjunction with members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is nearly complete and will be made public soon.
Mr Carthy's family want an independent inquiry and say they were disturbed at reports that the internal inquiry would find that gardai had "no alternative" but to shoot him.
An editorial in Garda Review, the GRA's monthly magazine, said there had been a "concentrated effort to present an appalling image of the Garda Siochana" in the two RTE programmes. It said it was questionable if they could be described as fair or balanced.
It said the force did not want to be involved in situations where it was necessary to use the ultimate force. Undoubtedly, "situations arise from time to time where we are simply left with no choice".
It added: "It is unfair and grossly unacceptable that conclusions should be reached and speculation increased to frenzy when all of us collectively are ignorant of the facts."
The Prime Time programme on Abbeylara was broadcast over two weeks ago. It questioned the aspects of the siege from the decision to call in the heavily-armed ERU to how media coverage was handled. In interviews, Mr Carthy's family and friends said they were prevented from speaking to him.
Mr Carthy had suffered from depression and had been upset apparently at the prospect of moving from the family home to a new house nearby.
When local gardai were called, he fired his shotgun at the squad car. There was then a standoff and the ERU was called to Longford. Some 12 heavily-armed officers went to the house and engaged in siege tactics, learned in large part from the FBI.
The house was floodlit during the night and Mr Carthy may have suffered further anxiety through loss of sleep and from being deprived of cigarettes. Gardai said he fired more than 20 shots through the window.
The next day he came out with his gun and walked to the road, where he was shot dead.
The Carthy family have questioned the decision to deploy such a heavily-armed unit and say they should have been allowed to talk to Mr Carthy.
They are also concerned that the FBI has become involved. The FBI itself was at the centre of a controversial inquiry into its actions at the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, in 1993. At the end of that 51-day siege the FBI tactics team invaded the compound with tanks, and 76 adults and 25 children were killed. The FBI had pumped toxic CS gas into the complex for 48 hours beforehand.
Despite its criticism of E's Prime Time, the GRA agreed to be represented on it on Thursday, to mark the anniversary of the killing of the journalist Veronica Guerin. Yesterday the Prime Time editor, Mr Gary Agnew, said much effort had been put into its programme and RTE stood behind its content.