Pathetic stuff.
Even in an age of dummy teams, over the top mind games and ridiculous media bans, the Fermanagh county board’s treatment of the Donegal press at a Tuesday night press conference takes these pointless acts to a whole new level.
11 days prior to the Ulster final, the Erne County declared war on their opponents. The benefits they see themselves reaping from their decision to block members of the Donegal press from entering their media briefing are lost on the rest of us but Fermanagh obviously have some kind of agenda on the subject.
Donegal Now reported that Fermanagh County Board chairman Greg Kelly and secretary Tom Boyle offered no explanation for it being made clear to the county’s press that they weren’t welcome.
It was reportedly made clear to a journalist from Donegal that he wouldn’t be allowed to sit in for the briefing.
It seems a fairly inexplicable act when you take into account that national media were present at the event, and they were listening to the voices and the quotes that the Donegal representatives would have heard and gathered were they present.
These same quotes will be relayed in the national media over the next few days and will then be free to use by the same Donegal journalists who were denied entry, and available to the Donegal folk who read their papers.
No Donegal media were allowed into the @FermanaghGAA press conference today.
One Fermanagh publication has a sister paper in Donegal too…
One Fermanagh-based freelancer told he wouldn’t be welcome if he was filing copy to Donegal media…https://t.co/0lSWwr5IK5— Chris McNulty (@ChrisMcNultyDgl) June 12, 2018
When you consider the Freedom of the Press and when you consider there is no apparent reason for them being blacklisted – apart from pettiness – acts like these just shouldn’t be allowed to occur.
The Clones showpiece will be the counties first ever meeting in an Ulster decider. It will be Fermanagh’s first provincial final appearance in ten years and there if it wasn’t already guaranteed, there will be needle between the two teams now.
