Gardaí investigate O’Reilly surveillance claim

A GARDA investigation is continuing into suspicions that Independent News and Media (INM) chief executive Gavin O’Reilly was being spied on.

The firm said gardaí detained a number of individuals who were following Mr O’Reilly’s car recently. A spokesman said it was not clear who was behind the surveillance but Mr O’Reilly has been advised to increase his personal security. It is understood that INM are sweeping their buildings for security breaches.

This news comes as businessmen with connections to INM last night found themselves locked in a bitter dispute concerning the influencing of reporting on the Moriarty Tribunal.

Commenting on reports in the INM-owned Sunday Independent, ousted director Leslie Buckley, who was one of Denis O’Brien’s representatives on the INM board, accused Mr O’Reilly of using his title to “personally discredit” him in a “most unfair and underhanded manner”.

“To say the least, this is blatant editorial interference,” he said.

Mr Buckley, who was dismissed as a non-executive director at the company’s AGM on Friday, was accused in the newspaper report by Mr O’Reilly of interfering in coverage of the Moriarty Tribunal.

Mr Buckley said only he raised concerns around the balance of coverage of the Moriarty Tribunal with Mr O’Reilly, who, he said, has now chosen to make this public.

“While I raised the nature of the editorial coverage by journalist Sam Smyth... I never, on any occasion, attempted to interfere with editorial coverage in any Independent News & Media title,” he said.