One of Ireland's most influential journalists, Vincent Browne, argues that Denis O'Brien is not a fit person to control Independent News & Media (INM).
In an Irish Times article today, he accuses O'Brien - the largest shareholder in INM - of interfering in editorial affairs.
He also cites the findings of the Moriarty tribunal, which concluded that a consortium formed by O'Brien to secure a mobile phone licence in the 1990s had succeeded because of payments made by O'Brien to the then communications minister in "clandestine circumstances." O'Brien has strenuously denied this finding.
Browne also takes a sideswipe at the former INM controller, Tony O'Reilly, by accusing him also of interfering with editorial policy, notably at the group's Sunday Independent title.
But O'Brien is his main target. He writes of leaked INM memos concerning O'Brien's annoyance with journalist Sam Smyth, an Irish Independent writer and former presenter on Today FM (owned by O'Brien's company).
O'Brien believed Smyth was conducting "almost a vendetta" against him and wanted him be taken off the story of the Moriarty tribunal. Browne points out that Smyth has since been removed from his Today FM programme and, despite being contracted to the Irish Independent, "not one article by him has been published for some months."
Sources: Irish Times/Politico.ie/Broadsheet.ie
