Bomb threats disrupt European broadcasters

The warnings were sent last week to broadcasters including Ireland’s RTÉ, the UK’s Sky, and Bulgaria’s Nova TV.

In Ireland, the Dublin headquarters of national broadcaster RTÉ was evacuated, and live broadcasts were replaced with pre-recorded programmes until the building was searched by police and declared safe.

London-based Sky also said it had received a “security threat.” In a statement reported by Sky News, the broadcaster said that “we are working closely with authorities to ensure our people and operations remain secure.” Sky News remained on air.

Bulgaria’s Nova TV said it received an email on Friday 6 November threatening it with a bomb. The broadcaster carried out its standard safety measures without any interruptions to its TV and radio broadcasts.

Staff at the Dublin-based radio station NewstalkFM also left their offices for a short time after receiving threats by email, while Virgin Media Ireland also said it "received a security threat email that was widely circulated to multiple European media platforms".

The alerts follow a wave of hoax bomb threats that have disrupted passenger flights in Europe over the past week, forcing diversions, emergency landings, and security sweeps, though no ​explosives have been found so far.

"We want the whole world to know about us, which is ​why one of our operatives has planted an explosive device in your building," read one email received by Nova and ​RTÉ on Friday. "It will detonate in 45 minutes. The clock is ticking."

It is unclear who is behind the hoax threats.

The Irish government said the authorities were "working to establish who is responsible".

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) recently said it is “deeply concerned” by the Irish government's decision to cut agreed public funding for public broadcaster RTÉ by €20m. Discover more here