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Irish newspaper now at risk of closure after publication of topless Kate Middleton pics

Editor of Irish Star defends decision as British shareholder pulls plug and demands inquiry

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Sunday, September 16, 2012, 7:23 AM
Updated Sunday, September 16, 2012, 11:57 AM

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Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge


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The Independent Group in Dublin has distanced itself from management at the Star and their decision to publish the photos.

INM chief executive Joe Webb said: “This was a poor decision. These pictures should not have been published. I understand the anger that many Irish citizens feel at the offence caused to the British Royal family, especially in the light of the visit of Queen Elizabeth last year.

“That visit was an important culmination of the work of the Peace Process. Since then Ireland has regarded the Queen and her family in the warmest light. Kate Middleton is a member of her family and on behalf of INM, I wish to offer her my deepest apologies.

“We have noted Richard Desmond’s statement and we will be launching an internal inquiry to ensure there will never be a repeat of this breach of decency. However, we will be doing everything in our power to safeguard the 70 jobs at the Irish Daily Star.”

Northern & Shell are consulting their lawyers ‘as a matter of urgency’ over what they believe to be a serious breach of their contract with INM.

Gareth Morgan, the editor of the Daily Star Sunday in Britain, also slammed his Irish colleagues.

Morgan said: “We are absolutely horrified here in the office. I am not just talking on behalf of the Daily Star Sunday but the four other responsible titles in Northern & Shell.

“This has no merit as an editorial decision. This has no merit morally. Frankly, it’s a morally horrible decision.

A Royal spokeswoman condemned the publication by the Irish Daily Star’s.

She said: “There can be no motivation for this action other than greed.

“We will not be commenting on potential legal action ... save to say that all proportionate responses will be kept under review. Any such publication would serve no purpose other than to cause further, entirely unjustifiable upset to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.”

Politicians on both sides of the Irish Sea have also condemned the Irish Daily Star.

Fine Gael party chairman Charlie Flanagan tweeted: “Irish Daily Star disgraces itself yet again by now publishing Kate photos. Neither shame nor standards.”

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47 Comments

15 - 47 | See all comments

billie061 | Sep 18, 2012, 11:41 AM EDT
Sop for the sake of this pic, 120 jobs are now at risk, as if we don't have enough unemployed people in this country. Well done O'Kane hope it was worth it.

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bunkerhill | Sep 17, 2012, 10:14 AM EDT
I find this much ado about nothing. Or very little at any rate. Now someone like Dolly Parton, the "Queen" of country music would be interesting, but Dolly is too much of a lady to be parading around topless on a balcony, What great publicity to set off their luxurious travels around the world Are the Las Vegas papers being sued for revealing Harry's nudies along with his expensive frolicking. What grabs me is that the same day I saw this nonsense on the US news, I saw a feature that there are over a million English without homes due to a shortage of govt funds, while these royals were staying at a 642 chateau in France owned by the queen's nephew. After all the past English royals did to France over the centuries, I am surprised the French even let them in. Fortunately France was a large country and was able to get rid of them. What is wrong with this picture of asking English to rent out rooms to their needy fellow counrymen, given the cost of the royal wedding? I am sure Kate was not forced out on the balcony by gun point and it is insulting to our American servicemen to see Harry cavorting in an $8,000 dollar per night room throwing a huge party. What was he doing training here in the first place? There are bases in England. I can't tell you how sick most Americans are of this "royal" bunch, their crooked banks, LIBOR, and their Hollywood promoters.

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pilib04 | Sep 17, 2012, 09:14 AM EDT
"The only free press belongs to those own one!" Mark Twain.

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pilib04 | Sep 17, 2012, 08:47 AM EDT
O'Kane's comment that "she is not the future Queen of Ireland really hit the mark. The Brits would never dare censor an American tabloid or continental Europe tabloid, but have no problem shutting down an Irish paper. They still consider themselves the masters of Ireland. By the by, what is all this "Royal Family" nonsense. This inbred dystfunctional German crowd (Saxe-Gotha and Coburg) is not Royal in Ireland. Check out all of the anti-Irish bigotry on this page.

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Arthur Cola | Sep 17, 2012, 08:30 AM EDT
Well it appears that some shareholders have a bit of sense. It's common practice, from my experience in Europe, for women to sun bath topless. The Duchess, given her position, may have given that practice a second thought but she was in the privacy of a vaction home and not in public and that makes all the difference. If Ireland Nborth is correct, then the newspaper isn't worth saving anyway. Wish the Italian and French magazines would have had better sense as well.

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IrelandNorth | Sep 17, 2012, 05:46 AM EDT
Incidentally, Caít is more generically an English dutchess (ie female Netherlander!) rather than a British one, Cambridgeshire being an English home county rather than a Welsh or Scottish region. On a personal level I feel for her, but on a impersonal one I don't. Hopefully, this will be her first (and last) 15 seconds of infamy. Incidentally, The Star is a largely British tabloid of questionable journalistic merit. It caters for a readership of generally low intelligent quotient who exhibit all the symptoms of an unsatisfactorily weaned maternal readership. Hence the preoccupation with mammaries, aristocratic or proletarian, between which there is little difference. Learn your lesson Caít, and keep your peas in your pods.

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Ron | Sep 17, 2012, 01:48 AM EDT
Topless???? She's TITLESS!!!! Not even a good handful between both of them. What a fuss about NOTHING!!!

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TayandCake | Sep 16, 2012, 11:55 PM EDT
its all just money making

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borefield | Sep 16, 2012, 08:45 PM EDT
Thank you TomSwinford for a common sense and informative answer to those that are ignorant of the important part the Royal Family is to the English people. One doesn't have to like them, although what's not to like! You are also right when you state " you can't legislate common deceny" I sincerely hope the media will back off and leave the young couple to live their lives in peace.

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seanomelb | Sep 16, 2012, 07:02 PM EDT
I find the outrage over a few grainy photos amusing and the self flagellation by the British a little over the top. AS for Dianna she used the press and abused the press when it suited her. I find the whole episode ridiculous and panders only to the dimwitted in our society.

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seanomelb | Sep 16, 2012, 06:48 PM EDT
kawholland, I don't suffer fools gladly but I will indulge you for a moment: The Royal Family of Britain, aka, The House of Windsor, is an enormous economic enterprise and a huge source of revenue for the British Exchequer. William and Kate Windsor travel the world as goodwill ambassadors, part of their entourage being high level officials of the Dept of Trade and Industry - as well as many British businessmen and women - their purpose being to secure new business and enhance trade. At home the Royal Family is at its height of popularity, generating huge revenues, much of it from tourists, many of them American. In short, lad, The House of Windsor,PLC pays its way - and then some.

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seamusdenais | Sep 16, 2012, 06:46 PM EDT
I thought the papparazzi would be a thing of the past after 1997 but I was wrong. The Royal Family have demonstrated how disgusting, invasive and immoral they are. Imagine how you would feel if I came into your home, took pictures of you naked having sex with your wife and then put them in every paper in the world for money. It's as degrading as that.

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AmericanReader | Sep 16, 2012, 06:00 PM EDT
I couldn't agree more with borefield! This rag and all of them like it should be shut down. How many high profile people have die because these rags offer big bucks to photographers to chase after them, at the risk of their lives? These people and their organizations have no conscious or integrity. We have put up with them for too many years. Shut them down.

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freebie28 | Sep 16, 2012, 05:54 PM EDT
O’Kane told the BBC: “I am taken aback by the reaction. The duchess would be no different to any other celeb pics we would get in, for example Rihanna or Lady Gaga." Rihanna or Lady Gaga? Please; if all the Kate-haters here want to make her out to be nothing more than kitty litter, consider Rihanna or Lady Gaga what the kitty litter is there to hide!

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freebie28 | Sep 16, 2012, 05:39 PM EDT
canadianirish and Rebelforce, in my earlier comment I was going to finish with your point that Kate should have known the papparazzi would be waiting to pounce. Perhaps, but consider this, her life is totally managed her every waking moiment, lived under a strict code of conduct and protocol. Perhaps she thought these few precious days in the South of France were her own, to rebel a little, be herself, give the world her middle finger, so to speak, for a few days.... Who could blame her? Did she deserve her privacy at this time? In my opinion, absolutely, she did.

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