Tag Archives: Leslie Buckley

From top: CEO of INM Michael Doorly and former chairman of INM Leslie Buckley; emails between Mr Doorly and Mr Buckley in 2014

At a meeting on Wednesday, following further revelations about data breaches at Independent News and Media (INM), the group’s CEO Michael Doorly told staff he was “deeply concerned” by the developments.

In mid-2015, hard drives of up to six editors in INM were allegedly taken in the middle of the night and copied before being returned to the journalists’ desks before they got into work – on the alleged orders of then CEO Robert Pitt.

Of Mr Pitt’s alleged actions, Mr Doorly reportedly told staff:

“It is an allegation at the moment. I hate to think that a CEO would have done this.

This alleged breach is in addition to searches made, a year earlier, at the behest of former Chairman Leslie Buckley ostensibly to evaluate the cost benefit of of retaining Simon McAleese Solicitors.

The Sunday Business Post reported last April that Mr Doorly, then Company Secretary, was involved in helping source correspondence pertaining to Mr McAleese.

Emails (above) tweeted by Irish Times journalist Simon Carswell yesterday, show Mr Doorly’s contacting Leslie Buckley in August, 2014.

In one, Mr Doorly tells Mr Buckley that his trawl has included a screengrab taken ‘around the time of the investigation’ of “all of Gavin O’Reilly emails that were in Joe Webb’s mailbox”

This is a reference to former INM CEO Gavin O’Reilly and Joe Webb, former head of Independent News & Media’s Irish operations.

Mr O’ Reilly had left the company in 2012. Mr Webb in 2013.

At the staff meeting on Wednesday, Mr Doorly assured staff:

“Anything that hurts the reputation of this organisation is not acceptable. I will do everything I can to restore confidence and resolve this issue and protect the good names of all who work here. This is a core personal priority of mine.”

Previously:We Shall Fight Them On The Breaches

Look Hack In Anger

Pics: Rollingnews and Simon Carswell

Fro top: Ian Drennan, Director of the Office of Corporate Enforcement; Denis O’Brien (right) with former INM chairman Leslie Buckley

This morning.

Computer specialists that monitored the networks of Independent News & Media (INM) without the knowledge of the company’s board were paid by Denis O’Brien, According to claims in an affidavit filed with the High Court by the the state’s corporate watchdog.

The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) uncovered emails containing a list of names which were to be searched for in the ‘data interrogation’,.

“Persons of interest” were identified on the list and the document refers to “email hits” against current and former journalists, former directors and executives, staff members as well as two senior counsel.

Approximately €60,000 was paid by Blaydon Limited, an Isle of Man company owned by Mr O’Brien, to Trusted Data Solutions (TDS), an American company based in Wales, according to Ian Drennan, Director of the Offcie of Corporate Enforcement.

Former INM chairman and O’Brien associate Leslie Buckley told the ODCE that he gave TDS access to the INM networks as part of a “cost-reduction exercise” so he could “find out more detail about the awarding by INM of a professional services contract”.

But Mr Drennan, in his affidavit, writes:

“During the course of the data interrogation, INM’s data appears to have been interrogated and searched against the names of various individuals, including, amongst others, a number of INM journalists and two senior counsel.”

It is also alleged the data was accessed by at least six companies external to the media group.

Denis O’Brien company is linked to ‘data breach’ at Independent News & Media (Sunday Times)

ODCE claims INM data taken off site and ‘interrogated’ but ‘board did not know’ (Sunday Independent)

Meanwhile….

INM’s Stephen Rae with European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker last month

 “[I am] clearly concerned by the possibility as set out in an affidavit that journalists’ data may have been accessed.

We have always invoked a strict protection or ‘firewall approach’ to both our journalists’ research and sources to maintain the integrity of our journalism. We will look seriously at this new information to see what data, if any, may have been involved during this reported event in 2014.

At the same time we will continue to provide journalism of the highest standard as we keep our newspaper readers and online audience fully updated.”

INM editor-in-chief Stephen Rae, a member of a group investigating fake news for the European Commission, last night.

Good times.

Pic via Independent

Former INM CEO Robert Pitt walks by Leslie Buckley at the Independent News and Media AGM last year.

Hmm.

Buckley, eh?

Previously: Coldly Independent

You Can’t Take It With You

Lesliie Buckley (top) and Robert Pitt (above)

This morning.

At the INM AGM in Dublin.

Further to a fallout concerning the aborted sale of Newstalk to INM…

In an unprecedented development for an Irish public company, Mr Pitt did not raise his hand to vote for his chairman when a resolution for his re-election was put to the shareholder meeting.

Mr Pitt formally abstained on the vote for Mr Buckley, but he did vote for the re-election of all the other directors at the meeting….

….Robert Pitt [CEO] sat far removed from Leslie Buckley {Chairman] at the table of directors, and the two men appeared to not speak to each other at any stage during the meeting.

Meanwhile…

INM announced that its pre-tax profit fell by almost 20 per cent during the first half of 2017 compared with the same period last year.

The media group’s interim results showed that its pre-tax profit declined by 19.5 per cent to €14.9 million primarily due to “continued revenue challenges”.

The company said directors were not proposing a dividend for 2017

INM CEO Robert Pitt abstains from vote to re-appoint chairman Leslie Buckley (RTÉ)

Rollingnews