censorship at the 'Irish Echo'

[Philip Ferguson <PLF13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Censorship at the Irish Echo

Two columnists at the Irish Echo newspaper in New York have resigned
from the paper accusing its publisher of censorship. Both
claim that Sinn Féin, the Irish political party led by Gerry Adams,
brought pressure to bear on the Echo publisher, Sean Finlay,
about the content of their columns since they were hired last year.
Finlay's latest act of censorship this week produced angry
letters from his own editorial staff accusing him of caving in to
intimidation and betraying the newspaper's editorial independence.

The Echo is the oldest and largest circulation Irish newspaper in the
United States. Sean Finlay, a communications millionaire,
bought the newspaper early last year from Claire Grimes, whose family
had owned the paper since the 1940s. As part of the
newspaper's re-launch last September Finlay revamped the paper and added
new columnists, including Eamon Lynch and Patrick
Farrelly. Below are their accounts of the events which led to their
resignations from the Echo

Eamon Lynch   -- eamon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Several weeks ago I learned of legal threats against the popular website
Nuzhound.com, which links to daily news stories about
Northern Ireland. The threat came from Mairtin O Muilleoir, publisher of
the Belfast-based Andersonstown News. O Muilleoir, a
former Sinn Fein Belfast City Councillor and a confidant of Gerry Adams,
demanded that Nuzhound remove links to two articles
in the online magazine The Blanket that were critical of the political
coverage in O Muilleoir's newspaper.

The articles - alleging bias and an overtly pro-Sinn Fein slant at the
Andersonstown News - were written by Dr. Anthony
McIntyre, a former IRA prisoner and now a prominent critic of the Sinn
Fein leadership who often writes in major Irish and
British newspapers. Formerly an independent community newspaper, the
Andersonstown News is now tightly controlled by the
Sinn Fein leadership and frequently attacks critics of the party in its pages.

On June 11, the Irish Echo published a column in which I wrote about
this effort to intimidate Nuzhound and censor McIntyre's
criticisms. I pointed out that the Andersonstown News seemed determined
to stifle both political debate critical of Sinn Fein and
criticism of its own journalistic standards.  On the morning of June 17
I received a call from the Echo publisher, Sean Finlay,
asking if I could stand over an assertion in my column that an
Andersonstown News editor had once joined an angry picket of
McIntyre's home during which abuse was directed toward his pregnant
partner. I made clear that I could. Finlay expressed the
opinion that McIntyre was a  "discredited" figure and said he would call
me back to discuss the matter further.  He never did.

I soon learned that O Muilleoir had e-mailed Finlay complaining about my
column. Finlay immediately offered O Muilleoir a
rebuttal column in the June 18 issue. Later that day I was informed that
Finlay had ordered my column removed from the Echo
website and online archive. Further, he ordered a 'Publishers Note'
inserted at the end of O Muilleoir's column stating that the
Echo accepts the Andersonstown News is independent and has the highest
journalistic standards.

Echo staffers vehemently argued against Finlay's move, insisting that my
column was factually and legally defensible, to no avail. 
I was not afforded an opportunity by Finlay to defend the piece or to
answer O Muilleoir's complaint. I e-mailed Finlay to express
my disgust at his censoring of my column and pointed out that O
Muilleoir's intimidation of the Echo and Finlay's easy
acquiescence had proved the point of my column about Sinn Fein's
propensity to censor opinion and debate. Finlay replied by
saying he would not discuss any decision he makes regarding his
newspaper.  In light of this I told the editor of the Echo, Tom
Connelly, that I had no alternative but to resign.

O Muilleoir's column appeared June 18 with the flattering 'Publishers
Note'. O Muilleoir did not answer any of the serious issues I
raised regarding intimidation and censorship. He also boasted of his
frequent legal threats against any major media outlet that
publishes statements by McIntyre about the Andersonstown News. In this
case, he has cowed an American newspaper simply for
reporting on his threats and intimidation.

Patrick Farrelly  -- patrickfarrelly@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

In mid-December I submitted my third column to the Echo. It concerned
the choice of a Ford Motor Company executive as
Grand Marshal of the 2003 New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade. I
noted that Ford was the major commercial sponsor of the
parade and that the executive was unknown to the Irish community in New York.

The column also pointed out that the parade committee choose Cardinal
Egan as grand marshal in 2002 and that Egan's big day
coincided with the publication in the Hartford Courant newspaper of an
article which in part said that while serving as bishop of
the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese, Egan "allowed several priests
facing multiple accusations of sexual abuse to continue
working for years." The thrust of my column was to point out that the
St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee was an undemocratic
organization with little or no accountability to the Irish community in
New York.

On December 23rd I received an email from the Echo editor Tom Connelly
stating the following: "I've decided to hold your
column until the Jan. 8 issue. Sean Finlay thought it was not
appropriate for the Christmas issue." On January 8th I got a further
email: "Sorry the column didn't appear in this issue. Sean has some
problems with it that we are to discuss this week. I wasn't
aware of the depth of his concerns until yesterday and am still a bit in
the dark as to  what he objects to." With a view to bringing
this matter to an amicable conclusion I sent an email to Connelly on
January 13th saying: "If the publisher wants to kill the
column he should say so; if he has some specific criticisms it would be
good to know what they are."

Shortly after this I learned that Finlay told Connelly he had decided to
"spike" the column when he first read it in December.
Connelly had one last suggestion: he would edit the column. I was
dubious but saw no harm reading his revise. He emailed this
version on January 31 saying: "I have no idea what Finlay will say. I
tried to remain faithful to your theme while taking some of
the bite out of it." The "bite" had certainly been taken out of it and
it bore only a passing resemblance to what I had written.

At this point I let Connelly know that the situation was untenable and I
couldn't continue writing for the Echo. I was already
aware that Finlay had found my first two columns disagreeable - the
first was about the post 9/11 civil liberties situation in the US,
the second was based on issues raised in Ed Moloney's book 'A Secret
History of the IRA'. I'd been told that as a result of the
latter column, Sinn Fein's representative in Washington D.C. had made
her extreme displeasure known to Finlay.

At the Echo Christmas party in mid December, Finlay told me that if he
had his way my columns wouldn't appear in the
newspaper. When I asked him about the nature of his objections he
refused to elaborate.  From what I have been told informally
by Echo staffers, Finlay objected to criticism of Cardinal Egan, the St.
Patrick's Day Parade Committee and the Ford Motor
Company. Internally it was assumed that Finlay was worried about
advertising in the large St. Patrick's Day issue being adversely
affected. Finlay, I was told, was also influenced by the representations
that Sinn Fein had made after my second column was
published.