Professor Crown affair - RTÉ has shirked from its duties

PULLING Professor John Crown, the consultant oncologist, from the Late Late Show on Friday night raises the most serious questions, not only in relation to what is happening within our health service, but also in relation to the issue of news management.

In a democracy the media is supposed to be the independent watchdog on the behaviour of government.

“The only security of all is in a free press,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, one of the fathers of modern democracy.