Long-time Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris will no longer be writing for the paper, with immediate effect.
The decision to terminate Mr Harris’s contract was taken by editor Alan English this week, after the former Senator admitted being involved in the running of an anonymous Twitter account set up in February 2020.
“We encourage the expression of strong, sharp and diverse opinions in the Sunday Independent and Eoghan Harris’s column has been a must-read for a great number of readers for a considerable time,” said Mr English. “However, his position as a columnist became untenable when Eoghan confirmed to us this week that he has had an involvement in the operation of a fake Twitter account.
“Regardless of where they stand on any issue, we expect our writers to put their views across in a transparent manner. Readers can agree or disagree with these opinions. We will not, however, tolerate hidden agendas.“
The fake account was set up in February 2020 under the name of Barbara J Pym, mostly posting tweets about aspects of Irish politics .
Peter Vandermeersch, Publisher at INM, said: “We regard Eoghan Harris’s involvement with this account as a betrayal of trust and as such his contract has been terminated”.
