Outspoken Irish media personality Eamon Dunphy has said he "won't rule out" making an apology to media tycoon Denis O'Brien.
Last week, Dunphy received a hand-delivered letter threatening legal action from the businessman after he condemned O'Brien on his show Newstalk.
During his last moments on air following his decision to resign, Dunphy called the station, which is majority-owned by O'Brien, a "slum" and said that O'Brien "hated journalism."
The letter from O'Brien's legal team demands an apology, retraction and compensation from the broadcaster, reports the Independent.
Dunphy insisted he resigned because of the way the staff was being treated and not because he was asked to take a pay cutof €50,000 a year from the €100,000 he was being paid to host 40 shows.
The 66-year-old author and former footballers confirmed to the Independent that he received the letter but could no comment on the issue as he was consulting with his own legal team.
He did say he was "unsurprised" that his fellow presenter George Hook launched a series of online attacks against him in recent days. Hook osted made the comments from Haiti, where he was working with house-building charity Haven.
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The comments were published on Newstalk's website and describe Dunphy as "being like Greece"--- "full of crap, but people keep giving him huge money."
Said Dunphy: "If I was in Haiti I don't think I would be thinking of George Hook. I'm surprised at a mature man behaving this way."
Fellow Newstalk presenter Fionn Davenport also weighed in.
"So Dunphy left as a gesture of solidarity to the staff. For a guy who didn't know anybody's name or was rarely in, that's some gesture." he wrote on his Twitter account.
Dunphy said he was not looking for a new slot although he "loved radio" and may return to it one day.
"I am happy to continue working with 'The Star' and RTE and I am writing my memoirs, which are very important to me and which I will have much more time to do now.
"I do love radio and maybe will be go back there some time," Mr Dunphy said.
3 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.IrelandNorth | Nov 07, 2011, 08:49 AM EST
At least Dunphy was at least one reasonably objective journalist in an otherwise highly subjective southern Irish partitionsit press and southern media during the recent presidential debate. For some candidates at least, they didn't even get a fair trial before they were hung.
irishfrank | Nov 07, 2011, 06:05 AM EST
that man hook is so right he is so full of CRAP
mamaginnty | Nov 06, 2011, 04:34 PM EST
O'Brien must have handed the staff some of them famous brown envelopes, he knows how they worked while in cahouts with the last crooked government, who helped put him where he is today. Hook..well he changed sides very quickly too, wonder why. O'Brien does hate journalism and journalists whenever the truth hurts.