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Fresh criticism for Rusbridger over Greenslade IRA article

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Few journalists have been more celebrated by the liberal elite than Alan Rusbridger. The longtime editor of the Guardian for twenty years, a winner of the Marie Colvin prize for improving British journalism and a former head of an Oxford college: there are few baubles which have eluded his grasp.

But now the Roy Greenslade scandal has cast a belated shadow over his former editor’s career. Back in 2014, Greenslade wrote an article in his capacity as the Guardian’s media commentator about Mairia Cahill in which he questioned her motives in going public about her sexual abuse at the hands of an IRA man.

The piece, published 28 October 2014, and titled ‘BBC programme on IRA rape allegations flawed by lack of political balance,’ was controversial at the time but was not removed from the Guardian’s website until March 2021 after Greenslade admitted to being a secret supporter of the Provisional IRA during the Troubles. The subsequent controversy led to Rusbridger resigning from his post on the Commission on the Future of the Media in Ireland.

Prior to his resignation, Rusbridger maintained that he had no involvement with the article. On 9 March 2021 he wrote to Catherine Martin, the Irish minister for media, to claim: ‘The original piece he wrote a BBC Spotlight programme concerning Mairia Cahill in 2014 was an online blogpost. I did not read it at the time’ adding ‘I did not read this piece either before or after publication.’

In a separate media statement he said: ‘I did not read his [Greenslade’s] post on Mairia Cahill and was not made aware of a complaint about alleged factual inaccuracies (mainly about the dates of Ms Cahill’s political allegiances) until last week.’

Now internal emails seen by The Spectator have raised fresh questions about Rusbridger’s role in events.

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Steerpike
Written by
Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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