This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

An aide to an Irish politician has clearly taken the concept of giveaway newspapers to a new level - by treating them as throwaway papers.

Tommy Morris, adviser to Derek Keating TD, decided that people shouldn't read a story about his boss in the Lucan Gazette, a free title distributed in south Dublin.

So he walked into a shop, picked up a pile of copies and dumped them in a nearby litter bin. Then he repeated the exercise to ensure none would be available.

But Morris's ruse was captured on CCTV, and pictures of him indulging in what amounts to censorship were run in the main Dublin paper, The Herald.

Now his embarrassed political chief has reprimanded him in public, saying he was "shocked and disappointed" at his aide's actions.

"Tommy was upset when he saw the article," said Keating, "and he must have had a rush of blood to the head. We don't believe the article was fair at all to me."

And Morris conceded he did it in a "fit of anger" because he thought the Lucan Gazette's front-page article, "Principal blasts Keating leaflet", was unfair.

It concerned a row between the politician and a local principal over a school extension, which was also carried, incidentally, in the rival paid-for title, the Lucan Echo.

Despite his shock and disappointment, Keating offered a lame defence for his parliamentary assistant's actions by saying: "This publication is a free sheet so there is no question of Tommy breaking the law."

I think that misses the point somewhat.

Sources: The Herald/Index on Censorship/Lucan Gazette