Irish investigative journalist Gemma O’Doherty has launched a defamation action against her former employer, Independent News & Media (INM).
She was angered by an article in one of its titles, the Sunday Independent, contending it defamed her by carrying claims that she had been misleading and selective in how she edited a documentary about a missing child.
The article, “Second garda denies Mary Boyle cover-up”, was carried on 14 August and concerned the film, “Mary Boyle: the untold story”, about the disappearance in 1977 of the then six-year-old girl in Co Donegal. She is Ireland’s longest-running missing child case.
Since its release on YouTube on 4 July, the award-winning documentary has been watched by more than 165,000 people.
O’Doherty previously sued INM for defamation after being fired by the Irish Independent in August 2013 and labelled as “a rogue reporter”.
In January 2015, her action resulted in her winning damages, costs and an apology in which INM acknowledged O’Doherty’s “exceptional work” and accepted she had “acted at all times in a professional and diligent manner.”
She was represented in that action by Paul Tweed and, according to a report in the Sunday Business Post, he is representing her once more.
