Blurred Keys

Dublin papers settle libel action cases

Five Dublin newspapers have settled libel cases against them taken by Julia Kushnir, a Ukrainian interpreter who survived the car crash in which former TD Liam Lawlor died.

Kushnir's solicitor, Brian Lynch, told RTE Radio that the delay of over two years was due to "Huge resistances by the papers generally fighting this case". He added that "She is very happy with the outcome, and she is very releaved that it is all over now".

Guardian goes Auto for £675m

The Guardian’s parent company is set to make around £675m from the sale of a minority share of Trader Media Group.

The firm publish Auto Trader, which is the largest selling motoring magazine and the second largest selling weekly magazine in Ireland.

The Guardian Media Group are currently sole owners of ATM and have agreed to sell a 49.9% stake to private equity investment group Apax Partners. Media Guardian is reporting the deal values the company at £1.35bn.

Irish journalists who blog (the list)

A more up-to-date list is now here.

Since the original post was published the number of links we have to Irish journalists’ blogs has massively expanded – mostly thanks to reader’s comments on the last post.

Again, this is by no means a complete list. You can post additions, corrections, comments, and, as always, abuse below. (You can comment here without entering an email address, or name).

Adam Maguire, freelancer
Adrian Weckler, tech journalist / editor, S. Business Post
Dave Forsythe, Deputy Editor, Cork Independent
Declan Cashin, subeditor the Star; col. Irish Independent
Fergus Cassidy, freelancer
Gavin Sheridan, freelance sub-editor, Irish Examiner
Harry McGee, political editor, Irish Examiner
Haydn Shaughnessy tech journalist, the Irish Times
John Maguire, film critic, Irish Independent
John Reynolds, freelancer
John Naughton, (UK-based) columnist, the Observer
John Collins, tech journalist, the Irish Times
Karlin Lillington, tech journalist, the Irish Times
Kevin Rafter, assistant editor/political editor, Sunday Tribune
Kathy Foley freelancer, & columnist, the Sunday Times
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Andersonstown News Group
Ronan Fitzgerald, freelance journalist (the Guardian, Pitchfork)
Ruairi Roddy, technology officer, Thomas Crosbie Holdings
Ronan Price, Editor, Herald AM; tech col., Evening Herald 
Richard Delevan, business editor and col., Sunday Tribune
Sinead Gleeson, arts journalist, the Irish Times
Sarah Carey columnist the Sunday Times
Tom Griffin, (UK-based)
Una Mullally, journalist, Sunday Tribune

Observer settles in Lawlor crash case

The Irish Times is reporting today that Julia Kushnir is settling her case with the Observer newspaper, and that such will be announced in the High Court in Dublin on Monday.

She has also taken libel action against the Sunday Independent, the Irish Independent, the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday World and the Irish Sunday Mirror.

The full article can be read on eircom.net for free and without login or at Ireland.com where paid subscription applies.

Kushnir to sue over Lawlor crash reporting

According to the Irish Times, Kushnir – the sole survivor of the car crash in which the infamous Irish politician Liam Lawlor died – is suing the Observer, the Sunday Independent, the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday World, the Irish Sunday Mirror, and the Irish Independent, over wrongfully reporting that she was a teenage prostitute.

Ms Kushnir is proceeding with her case notwithstanding the fact that all the newspapers cited have either apologised or offered to do so for their coverage…

The Sunday Independent, using information provided by the Observer's correspondent in Moscow, wrongly suggested that Mr Lawlor was in the company of a teenage prostitute when he died. The story was "lifted" by other newspapers.

The Sunday Tribune was said to have only added the claim in the late print edition.

The teenage prostitute claim was vie an Observer reporter in Moscow apparently from a police source. The Guardian Media Group’s Sunday newspaper, the Observer, held tight, reacting slower then other newspapers leaving their online edition unchanged until sometime on Tuesday of that week.

By Wednesday the Observer had issued a correction and apology –

Serious discrepancies have emerged in the account provided by police in Moscow to The Observer of the events surrounding the death of Liam Lawlor last Saturday. In the light of these discrepancies we have removed the story published in the Irish edition of The Observer from our website. We would like to apologise for the inaccuracies in the story and for the distress the story caused

On Monday, while not as direct as the Observer article, the Guardian published a story stating that -

Lawlor, 60, was killed instantly when the Mercedes he was travelling in crashed into a bollard in a red-light district. The driver was also killed and a 19-year-old Ukrainian woman travelling with Lawlor was seriously injured. Police said she had no papers. A spokesman for Moscow police said it appeared the girl had not known Lawlor long"

The Irish media had reported she was 32-years-old by this time. The story is now apprently offline.  

LINK: 'Google falls at first moral hurdle'

"The only thing that was surprising about Google's decision to self-censor its China-based service was that people were surprised by it..."

"By joining the Gadarene rush into the Chinese market, Google may have gained short-term advantage. But it has also forfeited its right to our trust."

...from an Observer column, vie the author's blog, Memex 1.1, and on another blog the results can be seen on this entry about an image search for "tienanmen" on google.com and google.cn, the first image on one looks like a government PR picture of China, the other is China's darkest hour in the past few decades.