Sir, - Your second Editorial of Saturday, January 27th made references to myself which seriously misrepresented my response of last Friday to complaints about the treatment in custody of 19 Moldovans held in prison earlier in the week. Your columnist, Mr Fintan O'Toole, also referred to the matter yesterday.
At no stage did I refer to the Moldovans as "the accused" as you suggest in the Editorial.
I did say that we treated all prisoners the same without any assumptions as to guilt or innocence. I did say that the photography of accused persons in restraints was a contempt of court. This was said to illustrate an earlier point about the use of photography - usually by tabloids - to demonise people before the courts. (The Irish Times is not an offender in this respect.) I did not refer to the Moldovans as "the accused" at any stage. In fact, I was scrupulous to avoid doing so. - Yours, etc.,
Sean Aylward, Director General, The Irish Prisons Service, Dublin 2.
The Irish Times is happy to accept Mr Aylward's clarification of remarks he made on RTE.