The chairman of Independent News & Media (IN&M), Sir Anthony O'Reilly, said the Rainbow Coalition was not given hostile coverage in Independent titles because of disputes he had with it over a number of commercial matters.
He said he had no foreknowledge of the editorial carried on the front page of the Irish Independent at the time of the 1997 general election. The editorial was headlined "Payback Time" and called on voters not to vote for the parties that comprised the then Rainbow Coalition.
Sir Anthony said it was the policy of IN&M that its editors were not interfered with by members of the board. He said that if the tribunal wanted verification of this it could contact the editors.
Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, said evidence had been heard from Mr Seán Donlon, former adviser to the Rainbow Coalition, in relation to a meeting he had with a number of IN&M executives in September 1996. The men discussed government inaction on the TV deflector issue. Mr Donlon had said he was left in "no doubt" as to the "hostility" of the Independent group towards the government.
Sir Anthony said the word hostility might have been a bit "pejorative". It was more a "commercial proposition". The government was dragging its feet and IN&M's partners in the MMDS TV channel distribution business, Princes Holdings, were "seething with us as well as with the government in relation to the amount of money they were losing in Ireland".
He said the reference to the government losing IN&M as friends was to do with IN&M's position in its discussions with its fellow shareholder in Princes Holdings.
The US shareholder was pressing to take a case against the State and IN&M was arguing against such a move.
A case was eventually taken, in 1997, seeking damages of £100 million. He was "absolutely unequivocal" that the reference to the government losing IN&M as friends was a reference to potential litigation as against editorial content.
Mr Coughlan referred to the "Payback Time" editorial on the front page of the Irish Independent on the day of the 1997 general election. He said Mr John Bruton and Mr Donlon saw this as hostility from Sir Anthony and IN&M towards the government parties. Sir Anthony said Fine Gael actually increased its share of the vote in that general election and its number of seats.
"It could be that the front-page editorial helped them," he added.
Asked if he had any input into the editorial, Sir Anthony said: "Absolutely not. Nor do I interfere in the editorial process in any IN&M newspaper." He said he had no role in the matter and did not know it was going on the front page.
When Mr Coughlan said the front-page editorial could be described as "interventionist", Sir Anthony said such a description could be assigned to it by "enemies". He said governments always felt maligned and opposition parties always felt ignored.
Sir Anthony said it was his view that he did not mention the mobile phone licence competition when he met Mr Bruton in Glandore in July 1996.He said he thought Mr Bruton had sounded "tentative" in his evidence on the matter while his recollection was "very clear".
He said he considered the matter of the licence closed once the result was announced on October 25th, 1995. A few days later he had written a note to Mr Denis O'Brien congratulating him on winning the licence.
