Independent News and Media threaten students with legal action

TheTruth

Independent News and Media have threatened The Liberty newspaper with legal action after the paper, produced by DIT journalism students, ran a front-page story accusing the Herald AM of underpaying foreign workers.

The story ran on the basis of an interview with a Heald AM team leader, who levied the accusation toward the group.

flogen

Any chance of more information on this? Links, the original story, the threat made?

If this is in relation to people who hand out the newspapers, I did some investigation before (coincidently for a college newspaper piece) and I found that those who gave out the regular herald were actually reasonably paid (by the hour, although their hours were short). That could be different for Herald AM workers though

TheTruth

http://indymedia.ie/article/76051 - the original story is included there.

I understand that it's in relation to the early days of the Herald AM.

It's still very much up in the air at the moment, as the story is in its infancy.

Eoin

Looks like a bit of a non-story in the first place; the Herald AM pay two different sub-contractors to distribute the papers, one company seems to be paying more than the other. Kind of ironic IMO that someone is making a story out of nothing about, rather than for, the Herald for once.

*mod edit*

flogen

Just to point out that I've removed eoin_s' quote from the article as it contains unsubstanciated claims (ones that Indymedia aren't happy to host). If the story was picked up by a mainstream media outlet it would be permissable to repeat it here, but given that any potential libelous comments are likely to get more attention here than in a student newspaper (and as such attract hawkish lawyers), I'd prefer it if the claim was not repeated at present.

That said I'm happy to keep the this thread open to discuss the issue of a student newspaper facing legal action etc., and I also realise that the reason for such action must be alluded to; just remember that this student newspaper has claimed that the Metro AM underpaid staff but such accusations are spurious and making them directly here will not be welcomed... in other words:
The DIT student newspaper claimed that...
not
IN&M is doing x,y and z etc.

Dublin's Finest

I know that we can't really talk about this here without putting boards in the firing line but I was just wondering if anything else has happened on this since the last posts?

Is a libel suit going ahead?

lostexpectation

but isn't the libel specificaly related to the quoting of a person saying questionable things not about the payment practices which there was fair reason to question, I remember seeing this story on RTE, was it DIT that initiated this story or was it some other newgroup or was some it workers group?

mikelmessi

DIT, on behalf of the Liberty, retracted the story. Even though the libel could have been challenged, DIT chose not go up against the might of INM.

On Friday the 12th of May you received an email that was circulated to various media organisations. The subject line was "Inner-city paper exposes Pay Inequalites [sic] at Herald AM". This email contained the text of a story that appeared in the May 2006 edition of The Liberty, a newspaper produced by DIT students.

The Dublin Institute of Technology regrets the publication of this article and
the distribution of the email. Specifically we would like to state categorically
that Herald AM and its distribution contractors do not, as the article implied,
operate a policy of discrimination through the payment of wages or in any other way.

Contrary to what the article erroneously reported, all Herald AM distributors
are paid exactly the same rates and these payments are fully documented. None of them are subject to any unwarranted deductions.

The Liberty retracts this article and has stopped the distribution of the May
edition and the next edition will prominently feature the above statement. We
regret any embarrassment this may have caused the Herald AM or its distributors.

lostexpectation

mikelmessi wrote:

DIT, on behalf of the Liberty, retracted the story. Even though the libel could have been challenged, DIT chose not go up against the might of INM.

so who was that guy on the RTE news and in the Times complaining about not being paid promptly?

mikelmessi

I don't know.
The whole prospect of a libel action scared DIT so they backed down. The financial implications and the prospect of DIT media graduates never working for INM again were a afctor as far as I know.
The story possibly, allegedly could be true (I'm covering myself for libel!)