The executive editor at the Irish Daily Mail has refused to comment on the paper’s Facebook page being run from Israel – claiming he “wouldn’t be licensed” to do so.
Executive editor John Lee told The Ditch this afternoon he couldn’t say anything about the page’s – called Extra.ie – three account managers in Israel. "Call DMG," he said.
The Ditch asked parent company DMG Media Ireland to comment – considering it's the only identified mainstream Irish publication with account administrators in Israel. It similarly declined to comment.
Today Extra.ie – the digital offering from the Irish Daily Mail which is partly managed from Israel – published on its Facebook page an account of president Catherine Connolly’s remarks on the US and Israel’s attack on Iran. “They are deliberate assaults on international law,” said Connolly.
“Trump won’t be happy,” read Extra.ie’s caption.
It’s the only one
Extra.ie is a news site owned by DMG Media – which is in turn owned by the conglomerate over the British Daily Mail – that launched in 2017. It publishes articles from the Irish Daily Mail.
The Ditch has confirmed that its Facebook page is run by administrators across multiple countries.
These include 16 in Ireland, one in Argentina and three in Israel.
It’s the only Irish mainstream media social account identified by The Ditch to be run from Israel.
The Irish Times lists one manager in the “United Kingdom”. RTÉ News lists one manager in Spain while pages like the Business Post, the Journal, and the Irish Examiner are run solely from Ireland. The Irish Mirror is run primarily from the “United Kingdom” while the Irish Sun lists seven managers in that state.
The locations were identified using Facebook’s page transparency tool which lists the countries where page administrators are based.
Asked to comment on the social media channel, Lee – who today published an article that accused president Catherine Connolly of making a “hugely problematic” statement about ongoing breaches of international law – said he couldn’t do so.
Extra.ie has previously published digital versions of Lee’s columns – with one last week accusing opposition TDs of having a “dangerously simplistic” view of the Israel-Palestine conflict. According to Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, Amnesty International and the United Nations, Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
DMG has recently placed Irish Daily Mail articles behind a paywall, including several of Lee’s recent columns. Asked if he had a moment to discuss the new offering Lee said, “No."
Despite multiple requests he refused to comment on Extra.ie’s social media page being run by administrators based in Israel.
