Dunphy critical of O'Brien on final show

NEWSTALK PRESENTER Eamon Dunphy has accused station owner Denis O’Brien of despising journalism.

During his last programme yesterday morning, Mr Dunphy said on air that producers and younger reporters in Newstalk were being “intimidated and blackguarded” and his life was being made “impossible”.

His departure means the O'Brien company Communicorp, which owns Newstalk and Today FM, has lost its two most high-profile weekend presenters following the announcement earlier this month that Sam Smyth will no longer be presenting the Sunday Supplementshow.

Communicorp difficulties have been accentuated by the announcement this week that Today FM chief executive Willie O’Reilly is leaving to join RTÉ as commercial director.

Mr O’Reilly has said his move is unrelated to his recent decision to drop presenter Sam Smyth from the radio station’s schedule.

His decision to replace Smyth with PR consultant and broadcaster Anton Savage has been linked in some quarters to the long-running libel action which Mr O’Brien has taken against Smyth over the journalist’s Moriarty tribunal coverage.

The tribunal’s second and final report, published in March, found that former minister Michael Lowry had assisted Mr O’Brien in his bid to secure a mobile phone contract for Esat Digifone.

Referring to the defeat of the 30th amendment which would have given Oireachtas committees powers to make findings of fact, Dunphy mentioned Smyth’s removal and his investigation of connections between Mr O’Brien and Mr Lowry.

Dunphy continued: “Now I put it to you Ger the people who did that kind of thing have now made my life impossible here. That’s why I’m leaving not just for me but for my producer and other young journalists in this station that they have been intimidated and blackguarded.

“If those kind of people acquire powers . . . that is very, very dangerous. They buy politicians like they buy dinners in fancy restaurants. It is not going to happen here. Do you want them to have the power to have people paraded before an Oireachtas committee?”

When pointed out to him by Mr Colleran that Mr O’Brien was not a member of the Oireachtas, Mr Dunphy continued: “Denis O’Brien hates journalism, he despises it, you can check the record all over the place.”

A spokesman for Communicorp referred all comments to Newstalk but the station’s chief executive Frank Cronin declined to comment. A source within the station said the decision to cut Mr Dunphy’s fee in half to €50,000 may be part of the reason why he has decided to leave. But Mr Dunphy denied this was the reason he quit. “It is not about me,” he said. “The real issues were interference in the programme, treatment of young journalists and the intimidation . . . on the station.”