In his ruling, the judge said he was satisfied that it was in the public interest for this matter to be investigated. The matter was robustly fought by INM – which owns titles such as the Irish Independent and the Sunday World – which sought to block it with a judicial review which failed earlier this year. Appointing inspectors is a “serious matter”, the judge said, and added he had given careful consideration to all of the issues before deciding to grant the appointment of inspectors. The State’s corporate watchdog took the legal action over allegations that the emails of staff members at the country’s largest media group were accessed – without the employees’ knowledge – by a third-party firm.
