Desmond set to close Irish Daily Star after Kate photos published

Last edited Sun Sep 16, 2012, 04:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Newspaper owner Richard Desmond took steps on Saturday to close the Irish Daily Star, as he reacted angrily to its publication of the topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing while on holiday in France.

The paper had been condemned by St James Palace after it ran 13 pictures of the duchess along with an image of French Closer magazine, which first published the pictures on its front cover.

Desmond is convinced he has the power to shut down the whole operation, given that he owns the British title. Insiders believe he has already instructed lawyers to begin the necessary legal action to terminate publication. Its website remained down on Saturday evening. Desmond's company, Northern & Shell, co-owns the Irish Daily Star with the Dublin-based Independent News & Media (INM).

Desmond said: "I am very angry at the decision to publish these photographs and am taking immediate steps to close down the joint venture. The decision to publish these pictures has no justification whatever and Northern & Shell condemns it in the strongest possible terms."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/sep/15/desmond-irish-daily-star-kate-photos

Fears at Irish Daily Star over Richard Desmond closure threat.

Fears have deepened in Dublin that up to 100 jobs could be lost at the Irish Daily Star, with unions predicting the media owner Richard Desmond would stand by his threat to "close down" the joint venture over the Duchess of Cambridge pictures scandal.

The head of the National Union of Journalists in Ireland who spoke with Irish Daily Star staff on Sunday told the Guardian there was "fear, panic and anger" in its Dublin newsroom. Seamus Dooley, the general secretary of the Irish NUJ, claimed Desmond could use the furore created by the Irish edition's decision to run the topless photographs as an attempt to "ingratiate himself with the British establishment in the post-Leveson environment."

On Saturday night, Desmond said he was "very angry at the decision to publish these photographs and [was] taking immediate steps to close down the joint venture". His company Northern & Shell jointly owns the Irish tabloid with the remaining 50% owned by Irish News & Media, which controls the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Evening Herald, Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life, and said it would try to protect jobs. Dooley said he believed the owner of Express newspapers and the Star in the UK was "not just taking a knee-jerk reaction" to the images in the Saturday edition.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/sep/16/irish-daily-star-fears-closure-richard-desmond