The managing director of Independent Newspapers, Mr Gavin O'Reilly said last night the company board totally supported the Paralympic movement.
In a statement, Mr O'Reilly said: "all forms of sport engaged in by disabled persons represent the highest ideals of the Olympic spirit". His comments came amid a mounting backlash against an article by Sunday Independent columnist Mary Ellen Synon, which heavily criticised the Paralympics.
Mr O`Reilly said the board of Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd endorsed an apology issued by Sunday Independent editor Mr Aengus Fanning for distress and offence caused by the article.
"Independent Newspapers is committed to the aims, objectives and, importantly, the achievement of the Irish Paralympic team and will help in every way with the further successful development of a movement which expresses the finer ideals of our society," he said.
The editor of the Sunday Independent did not see Mary Ellen Synon's article on athletes with disabilities before it was published, it emerged yesterday.
Mr Aengus Fanning said he would have changed some of the language used, or he might have dropped the article, had he seen it beforehand. The article referred to the Paralympics as "perverse" and said applauding the physical performance of "the lame" as we applaud the fit had to be questioned.
"It was human error, if I might own up to that," Mr Fanning said, speaking on RTE Radio 1 yesterday morning. "The truth is I didn't actually see the article. The three senior production people read it and for some reason or other did not consider it contentious enough or serious enough . . . to refer to me."
He said the article was quite short and was not in a prominent place, so this may have explained why it was not referred to him. "And everyone is human and everyone makes a mistake occasionally." Asked what he would have done had he seen it, he said hindsight was a wonderful science but he felt he would have at least modified the language used. "Or I might have spiked the article. I can't say either with absolute certainty."
Mr Fanning said the language was intemperate and demeaning of people with disabilities. He said the article was not dropped from later editions of the newspaper.
Mr Fanning said his apology was "absolute, fulsome and sincere" and had nothing to do with work and commercial pressures.
Asked about the view of Dr Tony O'Reilly, Independent Newspapers' proprietor on the issue, Mr Fanning said he didn't know. "He is the least interventionist newspaper proprietor in the whole English-speaking world. I can say that honestly."
Mr Fanning said there would be no sanctions against Miss Synon. "She's a journalist who I respect," he said.