Denis O’Brien was looking for approval to buy additional newspapers when his spokesman, James Morrissey, deliberately issued a “poisonous” press release attacking a 2016 report criticising the extent of the businessman’s media interests, a High Court jury has been told. The intention was to get in before the game started and make the report on media ownership in Ireland appear “toxic” to government ministers by claiming it had been paid for by the IRA, it is alleged.  The claims were made by senior counsel Mark Harty in his closing arguments on behalf of two Belfast-based human rights lawyers who claim…

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