Robinson takes legal action over article

The deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Mr Peter Robinson, has started legal proceedings against an Irish Sunday newspaper.

Mr John McBurney, a senior partner with McBurney and Company, Belfast, said letters of claim have been sent to the Sunday Business Post alleging defamation of Mr Robinson in an article published last weekend.

Mr McBurney said his client was seeking substantial damages, a retraction and an apology. "The article paints Mr Robinson as a liar and a hypocrite in his dealings with the electorate [in Northern Ireland]," he said.

If "appropriate" redress was not forthcoming in this weekend's paper it was proposed to issue a writ.

Mr Robinson is alleging defamation in the newspaper allegation last weekend that he has held private meetings with members of the Irish Government.

A spokesman for Mr Robinson said the defamation alleged was not whether anyone had met the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin. The issue was that someone who publicly claimed they had not met Government officials was reported to have done so.

The newspaper spoke to Mr Robinson prior to printing the article, and printed his denial that any such contacts had taken place. According to Mr McBurney, the seriousness of the libel is that, despite this denial, the paper made a "deliberate assertion of facts that are false".