Editor apologises to executive and staff

The editor of the Sunday In- dependent, Mr Aengus Fanning, has apologised to another senior executive in the newspaper for physically attacking him in the newsroom last Friday. He has been directed by management to attend a management training course.

He has also been "sanctioned" by the company. However, no party other than Mr Fanning has been given details of the sanction. The National Union of Journalists chapel will hold an emergency meeting this afternoon to discuss the company's policy on bullying and harassment. The written apology to Mr Campbell Spray, operations manager of the paper, was delivered on Wednesday night following an internal investigation into the incident in which Mr Fanning, who has been editor of the Sunday Independent since January 1984, was said to have pushed Mr Spray against a window and jostled with him.

The brawl is believed to have occurred following a phone conversation between the two which led to a face-to-face argument. They were separated by colleagues and spoken to later by the human resources manager, Mr Declan Carlyle.

Addressing newsroom staff yesterday morning, Mr Fanning apologised to them. Mr Carlyle told newsroom staff neither physical nor verbal abuse was acceptable to the company and that steps were being taken to ensure this would be enforced. It is understood that Mr Spray was found innocent of the charge put before him - that he verbally abused Mr Fanning - by the investigating committee. It also commended him for the "restraint" he showed during the incident.

The committee's findings were accepted and backed by the deputy managing director, Mr Brendan McCabe.

A management training structure will be put in place as a result of the incident and Mr Fanning will attend a management course. A spokesman for the Independent News and Media management confirmed that an internal investigation had been completed but would not comment further.

Mr Fanning did not return phone calls from the Irish Times yesterday.