Robert Shortt (born 1971) is an Irish former journalist with

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

, Ireland's national radio and television station, where he currently serves as its company secretary since January 2024. He previously held a number of roles with

RTÉ News RTÉ News and Current Affairs (), also known simply as RTÉ News (''Nuacht RTÉ''), is the national news service provided by Irish public broadcaster (RTÉ). Its services include local, national, European and international news, investigative ...

, most recently as Economics Correspondent from 2019 to 2024. As a current affairs broadcaster, he worked as a reporter with RTÉ's flagship programme ''

Prime Time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

''.

Career

Shortt began his journalistic career with ''

Nihon Keizai Shimbun ''The Nikkei'', also known as , is the flagship publication of Nikkei, Inc. (based in Tokyo) and the world's largest financial newspaper, with a daily circulation exceeding 1.73 million copies. The Nikkei 225, a stock market index for the Tokyo ...

'' and

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

before joining

in 1998, working on radio as a reporter on ''

RTÉ News at One ''RTÉ News at One'' is a news and current affairs programme broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1. It airs Monday to Friday for 45 minutes at 1:00pm. The programme was presented by Bryan Dobson until his retirement on 3 May 2024. Rachael English was ann ...

'' before being appointed

Business Correspondent in 2001. In that role he created and co-presented '' The Business Programme'' on

RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 () is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for the station in 2010 w ...

. From 2005 to 2008, Shortt was based in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

as RTÉ's

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

correspondent. He covered stories such as

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

and the

2008 United States presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John Mc ...

. Since returning to Ireland, he worked as a reporter on ''

'', winning a Smurfit Business Journalist Award for his documentary on Ireland's economic collapse. In May 2018, Shortt was appointed to the

RTÉ Board The RTÉ Board is a body of up to twelve people which makes policy and guiding corporate direction for RTÉ, Ireland's state public broadcaster. The board membership includes the broadcaster's chief officer and one elected staff representative. ...

as the staff representative. Much of his period on the board came under scrutiny due to the governance of the company under then Director General

Dee Forbes Deirdre Anne Forbes (born 1 February 1967) is an Irish former broadcasting executive, who was the Director General of RTÉ from April 2016 to June 2023. She was the first woman to hold the role, and the first external appointment in almost 50 ye ...

and Chair

Moya Doherty Moya Doherty (born 1957, in Pettigo, County Donegal, Ireland) is a Dublin-raised Irish entrepreneur and the producer and co-founder of ''Riverdance''. Early life Doherty was born in Pettigo, a village in the south-east of County Donegal in Ul ...

. In January 2024, Shortt resigned his role in the RTÉ newsroom and his position as staff representative on the

to take up the position of RTÉ company secretary, responsible for advising the board on governance, procedures and ensuring that proper rules and procedures at board and sub-committee meetings are followed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shortt, Robert 1971 births Living people RTÉ newsreaders and journalists Alumni of University College Dublin People educated at Presentation College, Bray People from Bray, County Wicklow Broadcasters from County Wicklow