TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to the editor of the Sunday Independent, Aengus Fanning, who has died following a battle with cancer.

The editor of the Sunday Independent, Aengus Fanning, died this morning. He was 69 years old.

THE Garda Ombudsman Commission has said it is considering allegations that corrupt gardaí protected public figures with drug habits, such as Gerry Ryan.

Sunday Independent journalist Jim Cusack and the editor of the paper Aengus Fanning will come under pressure from gardaí to reveal the source of claims in the newspaper that officers turned a blind eye to celebrities taking illegal drugs.

RTE has responded to criticism of its decision not to comment publicly on the details of the death of Gerry Ryan, including about the role played by cocaine in his death, which were released at his inquest.

THE editor of the Sunday Independent, Aengus Fanning, has apologised for any offence caused by his newspaper’s coverage of the death of a garda who died while giving birth to twins but defended the story as being of “interest to the public”.

The editor of the Sunday Independent newspaper yesterday said he never meant to cause the family of the late garda Tania Corcoran any distress.

WHAT an extraordinary week it was. First the media and then the Catholic Church were the subject of official and public odium for totally different reasons.

The son of disgraced former Fianna Fáil TD Liam Lawlor today described the newspaper coverage of his father’s death as a shot at the open wound of the family’s grief.

THE widow of Liam Lawlor was last night considering apologies from two senior executives of the newspaper that published the most prominent false account of her husband’s death amid public furore at reports he died in the company of a teenage prostitute.

SENIOR executives at the Sunday Independent newspaper yesterday said ‘Sorry’ for publishing a false account of Liam Lawlor’s death, but were warned by a family member any apology was “too little, too late”.

THE National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has described the publication in Sunday newspapers of false reports that Liam Lawlor died in the company of a prostitute as “a black day for journalism”.