Journalists at Independent Newspapers expressed "grave concern" yesterday at recent editorial decisions concerning the group's coverage of the Irish Ferries dispute.
The group's industry correspondent, Gerry Flynn, was taken off the Irish Ferries story after a report he wrote in last Saturday's Irish Independent was denied by the ferry company. The paper also decided not to publish a column critical of Irish Ferries written by staff journalist, Justine McCarthy. She was also told her weekly column was to be dropped.
Members of the Independent chapel (branch) of the National Union of Journalists yesterday passed a motion expressing concern at the decisions, which they said reflected adversely on NUJ members. They called on officers of the union to "defend vigorously" their colleagues' interests.
A spokesman for the Independent said last night there was nobody available to comment.
Mr Flynn clashed on RTÉ's Saturday View radio programme with Irish Ferries' Alf McGrath over his report in that morning's newspaper. Mr McGrath is a former director of human resources at Independent Newspapers. There are other connections between the two companies. Bernard Somers is a director of Irish Continental Group (ICG), Irish Ferries' parent company and is also on the Independent's board. Independent chief executive Vincent Crowley, is a brother of ICG director Peter.
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