'Immediate steps' to close Irish Daily Star
The company which owns the Irish Daily Star has criticised the newspaper for running pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge topless and are 'taking immediate steps' to close the newspaper.
Despite the Irish editor insisting that Kate Middleton is no different to any other celebrity, Northern and Shell says it is "profoundly dismayed" at the decision.
Northern and Shell chairman Richard Desmond said: "I am very angry at the decision to publish these photographs and am taking immediate steps to close down the joint venture.
"The decision to publish these pictures has no justification whatever and Northern & Shell condemns it in the strongest possible terms."
The Daily Star Sunday in UK is part of the same stable.
Its editor Gareth Morgan says he had no idea the snaps would be printed.
“They’ve made this decision on their own and informed nobody at Northern and Shell. We had no advance warning of it and would have done everything in our power to have stopped it. It’s terrible,” he said.
Breaking: Richard Desmond says he's taking steps to shut down Irish Daily Star follwoing publication of Duchess photos.
— Jason Farrell (@JasonFarrellSky) September 15, 2012
Meanwhile, Independent News and Media, who also own a share in the newspaper, released a statement saying they had no prior knowledge of the decision to publish.
"The decision by the Irish Daily Star to re-publish pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge from the French magazine Closer was regrettable and in poor taste.
Independent News & Media had no prior knowledge of the decision to publish."
