Broadsheet.ie & IT deleting articles relating to Kate's death

Hersheys

They should have printed a reply from TCC rather than edit the original article.

Or at least given proper justification to removing the letter.

dayshah

The Sparrow wrote: »

However, for there to be a problem with defamation, the company would have to prove that their reputation was harmed in the minds of the majority of right thinking people who read the article and I don't see that being possible since they were never named.

It would also have to be shown that the original allegation was unlikely to be true (on balance of probabilities).

I think this is really a terrible situation for the family, and it must be really difficult for them when up against far more powerful people.

The Irish Times shouldn't have butchered the letter. If they were unhappy with it they should have just taken it all down, and said it was ALL removed on legal advice.

dayshah

The Sparrow wrote: »

But they did publish it and they left it published in it's original state on their website even though the author had been clearly named in their follow up article. They obviously didn't think they needed to get the other side because they didn't think there was any threat of defamation because the company was not named.

Really what she said was not particularly bad and it was mostly her opinion. It was only when TCC contacted the IT that the problem started and as The Irish Times state that they did not change the article due to legal threats from TCC, we can only assume that some other reason caused them to change it.

Also, broadsheet.ie linked the story with a case being taken against the employer by a different person for bullying.

I have to say, I really admire broadsheet.ie taking a principled stand on this.

strandroad

dayshah wrote: »

The Irish Times shouldn't have butchered the letter. If they were unhappy with it they should have just taken it all down, and said it was ALL removed on legal advice.

If they took the whole letter down having received some real legal warnings from TCC I don't think the controversy would be nearly as big, or there would be none at all.

However, both IT and TCC keep shooting themselves in their collective foot. Is this what they call crisis management? If IT delivers on their promise and follows up on this it will only get more people interested in the whole affair and informed about its roots thanks to the miracle of the interwebs. I can't see IT getting any new readers (or TCC getting new customers) over this, but they can lose many.

expectationlost

irish times said the acted on its own legal advise nobody else's legal move

jerry2623

Brenda Power has an excellent piece on the whole topic on today's Sunday Times.
People need to be very careful about turning people who commit Suicide into either Victims or Heroes Neither of which they are

Cianos

jerry2623 wrote: »

Brenda Power has an excellent piece on the whole topic on today's Sunday Times.
People need to be very careful about turning people who commit Suicide into either Victims or Heroes Neither of which they are

Is there a copy of this online anywhere?

jerry2623

Cianos wrote: »

Is there a copy of this online anywhere?

The Times works on a pay per view System so not sure if you can get it for free online

Dionysus

Not a single letter is published in this morning's Irish Times about Kate Fitzgerald. In this case, openness, transparency and democratic debate seems to be something The Irish Times advocates for other organisations.

The editor of The Irish Times has, however, written an article in this morning's paper:


Seeking answers but not retribution on subject of suicide
KEVIN O'SULLIVAN, Irish Times Editor

THE IRISH Times’s purpose in featuring the story of Kate Fitzgerald’s life was to help people get a better understanding of suicide and depression.

We have a long-standing policy of encouraging a more open approach within society to the reality of suicide and of providing a forum for debate about it and related issues.

We have sought to be supportive of Tom and Sally Fitzgerald after the tragic death of their daughter earlier this year. Our shared objective has been to tell her story and to highlight the need for people who are depressed to talk about it and to seek support.

Kate Fitzgerald wrote a personal opinion piece in The Irish Times (September 9th) outlining her efforts to deal with depression; to find the answer on mental illness, “if you ask the right question”. The piece, published anonymously with a note at the bottom saying that the identity of the author was known to the editor, was also a plea for the right kind of supports for people like her, whether among friends, in the workplace or in greater society.

Tom Fitzgerald subsequently rang the newspaper and confirmed the author of the piece was in all probability his daughter and that she had taken her own life between it having been submitted and published.

Then Opinion editor and now foreign editor, Peter Murtagh, who had been in communication with Kate prior to its publication, felt the Fitzgeralds’ terrible turmoil when he met them: “A cascade of raw emotion, love, memories, loss and some anger followed. But with all of those, there was also a feeling that Kate’s life story, and her many achievements, should not be swamped by bewilderment at her death, the manner of it, and that her plea for greater understanding of depression should be heard”.

His piece (Weekend Review, November 26th) on the life of Kate Fitzgerald was immensely empowering in that it gave a great many of our readers a message of hope out of terrible adversity – and unquestionably provided an invaluable insight into how so many wrestle with depression and suicidal thoughts. Above all, the searing honesty, bravery in wishing to speak out about suicide and love of Kate, articulated by the Fitzgeralds, shone out from the page; a seeking of answers without the seeking of retribution.

The benefit is reinforced by the view of psychologist Tony Bates, director of Headstrong – the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, who believes we have to develop the language for talking about suicide and depression, the most common mental health problem worldwide. “And the evidence seems to indicate that it is on the rise globally. It has something to teach all of us about the way we live our lives and relate to one another,” he noted in The Irish Times HEALTHPlus supplement on the issue of “facing up to distress”.

The Irish Times sets high ethical standards for itself with a commitment to fairness. Sometimes they are not met, as some have contended in our coverage of this case. These are demanding requirements. Sometimes it’s a delicate weighing of often conflicting facts and details, when the full picture has yet to emerge.

That is what we attempted to do in this case. Suicide is such a difficult, complex subject; when someone chooses to take their own life with devastating consequences for their family, friends and colleagues. Coverage of suicide issues frequently provokes intense emotions and contention.

After publication of the piece on Kate’s life some further details of her final months emerged. This led to an Irish Times decision to edit the initial piece and to publish a clarification in Saturday’s editions. In my view, this was necessary in the context of fairness and it does not undermine in any way Kate’s life and the story told by her family, including her brother William.

As is standard practice, an edit note was appended to the revised online version of the article. Following some queries from readers, this note was further clarified to indicate the date of the revision and the reason it had been carried out.

Last year, The Irish Times published a major “Stories of Suicide” series by Carl O’Brien. His opening sentences encapsulated how “suicide is a convergence of troubled strands . . . where there are always unanswered, or unanswerable, questions. Could the death have been avoided? Were there sufficient warning signs that a person was going to take his or her own life? What could possibly drive a person to feel life is so unbearable that they would want to leave it?”

The series helped set free so many voices on the issue of depression and suicide across all strands of Irish society; notably of those with depression – who succumbed to it on a once-off basis or face it in a recurring way. Their families too were grateful for being part of the conversation, including some grieving after the loss of a loved one. I hope that coverage by The Irish Times of Kate Fitzgerald’s life and premature death will have a similar beneficial effect.

---

Incredible. Head. Sand. Delusional. Insincere vacuous waffle. These are words which came to me while reading that piece. The lack of published letters in today's paper, despite widespread condemnation of the actions of The Irish Times, says much about how quickly it wants its editorial behaviour in this issue to be brushed under the carpet. Let's not oblige them. For the record: The Irish Times called Kate Fitzgerald a liar.

Stovepipe

Hi there
Who was she and why did she deserve more attention than any other suicide victim?

regards
Stovepipe

genuine question; I've no idea who she was but have seen a lot of ink spilt about her

Dionysus

Cianos wrote: »

Is there a copy of this online anywhere?

jerry2623 wrote: »

The Times works on a pay per view System so not sure if you can get it for free online

Sunday Times article. This is one article on Kate's death in today's Sunday Times (compliments of Broadsheet.ie).

Biggins subscribes to The Sunday Times and is usually very obliging when asked nicely for a copy of an article.

He may even paste it all into this thread if the mods promise not to ban him (he likes it here!).

strobe

Stovepipe wrote: »

Hi there
Who was she and why did she deserve more attention than any other suicide victim?

regards
Stovepipe

genuine question; I've no idea who she was but have seen a lot of ink spilt about her

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=kate+fitzgerald

======

Unless, of course, it wasn't a genuine question (heaven forbid) and you have some point you were clumsily trying to make?

Regards,
A painfully obvious and tiresome person.

The Sparrow

Have just seen the explanation from The Irish Times. Sounds like a whitewash to me. No explanation of any concrete reasons that led them to amend the original article and I am also not very comfortable with these lines:

Above all, the searing honesty, bravery in wishing to speak out about suicide and love of Kate, articulated by the Fitzgeralds, shone out from the page; a seeking of answers without the seeking of retribution.... In my view, [the amendment] was necessary in the context of fairness and it does not undermine in any way Kate’s life and the story told by her family, including her brother William.

Sounds a bit rich to me considering the Fitzgerald family have been quoted saying that The Irish Times 'butchered' the article and in The Sunday Times her father said 'Given that it was her last statement to the world, it shouldn't have been abused or edited as it has been. She said what she said, and had every right to say it.'

And that is without even mentioning the accusation that The Irish Times made yesterday that Kate had lied. No evidence whatsoever has been presented to support that and the accusation is not even mentioned by the editor in this piece. Perhaps another piece would be in order on the morals of branding deceased people who cannot defend themselves as liars.

Podge_irl

The situation is exceptionally complicated. However, I can't help but feel people are rushing to blame the IT a bit too quickly. They've handled the whole thing poorly, but I think the attacks on them are a bit much. The complaints about their apology are misguided. Perhaps, in this situation, the Irish Times are actually right and there were factual errors in the original letter. The IT don't generally publish anonymous articles for this reason (amongst others). People are also jumping to conclusions because they don't like the company involved. The fact that the girl is dead is a tragedy, but it doesn't automatically mean her words are indisputable fact either.

The Sparrow

Podge_irl wrote: »

The complaints about their apology are misguided. Perhaps, in this situation, the Irish Times are actually right and there were factual errors in the original letter. The IT don't generally publish anonymous articles for this reason (amongst others). People are also jumping to conclusions because they don't like the company involved. The fact that the girl is dead is a tragedy, but it doesn't automatically mean her words are indisputable fact either.

But how could they possibly prove that there were factual errors in the original piece in the paragraphs that they crudely amended? It is a case of one person's word against another's and unfortunately one the people is no longer with us.

So if they cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt that what Kate said was false, then why would they decide to first amend her words and secondly apologise to the other party and insinuate that she was a liar?

That is the problem that so many people have with the whole episode.

Podge_irl

The Sparrow wrote: »

But how could they possibly prove that there were factual errors in the original piece in the paragraphs that they crudely amended? It is a case of one person's word against another's and unfortunately one the people is no longer with us.

So if they cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt that what Kate said was false, then why would they decide to first amend her words and secondly apologise to the other party and insinuate that she was a liar?

That is the problem that so many people have with the whole episode.

I have no idea. I'm not claiming they're right, just that it's a possibility that I think people are dismissing a bit quickly.

Unfortunately, not being able to prove it's false isn't really a high enough standard to print something though. Once it became clear who the writer was and what company she worked for then they had to do something with the piece. They handled it poorly and crudely, but something said anonymously about an unnamed company is a very different thing from something about a specific company printed unverified in a national newspaper.

As regards the "apology", I really don't know enough about the situation. Though I doubt most people here do either. Maybe she made a formal complaint that was investigated and not held up? Maybe none of the other employees in the company corroborated her story (which is certainly not indicative of her lying, but it puts the IT in a difficult position).

I'm not denying that there is a distinct possibility that TCC acted poorly and are now acting the bollox and threatening legal action to cover that up or that the IT and media in general in the country are a bit of a cess pit. But a situation such as this simply can't be cast in simple black and white terms.

expectationlost

people always talk of the high standards just when they've shown not to have them

jerry2623

The Sparrow wrote: »

But how could they possibly prove that there were factual errors in the original piece in the paragraphs that they crudely amended? It is a case of one person's word against another's and unfortunately one the people is no longer with us.

So if they cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt that what Kate said was false, then why would they decide to first amend her words and secondly apologise to the other party and insinuate that she was a liar?

That is the problem that so many people have with the whole episode.

At the end of the day It was KATE who decided to bring so much pain and hurt to her family and friends not the Irish Times or The communications clinic.
Kate decided to not stand up for her seriously damaging allegation.
People including her family now giving out about the IT altering her last statement to the world seem to ignore that one fact.
At the end it was She herself decided to kill herself and people around her should not be blamed for that

The fact that she appeares to have written the article less then 4 hours before doing this act speaks for itself about her state of mind .

billybudd

jerry2623 wrote: »

At the end of the day It was KATE who decided to bring so much pain and hurt to her family and friends not the Irish Times or The communications clinic.
Kate decided to not stand up for her seriously damaging allegation.
People including her family now giving out about the IT altering her last statement to the world seem to ignore that one fact.
At the end it was She herself decided to kill herself and people around her should not be blamed for that

The fact that she appeares to have written the article less then 4 hours before doing this act speaks for itself about her state of mind .

Or you could look at it as a rare insight into someomes state of mind just before they end their life.

rugbug86

jerry2623 wrote: »

At the end of the day It was KATE who decided to bring so much pain and hurt to her family and friends not the Irish Times or The communications clinic.
Kate decided to not stand up for her seriously damaging allegation.
People including her family now giving out about the IT altering her last statement to the world seem to ignore that one fact.
At the end it was She herself decided to kill herself and people around her should not be blamed for that

The fact that she appeares to have written the article less then 4 hours before doing this act speaks for itself about her state of mind .

How can it be a seriously damaging allegation if a) it was anonymous and b) the company weren't mentioned?

And she didn't write it 4 hours before she killed herself - she sent it into the IT on the Friday, PM rang her on the Monday, she died sometime between Monday night/Tuesday morning.

I think the whole situation is just messed up. I think that it was a courageous thing for Kate to write, and as a friend of hers, the follow-up publication in the IT, while difficult to read, gave some sort of closure. To have things changed and have to hear her name essentially being dragged through the mud is hurtful, and it makes it seem like the grieving process is starting all over again.

And I know it's her decision not to be here to defend herself, but that doesn't make it any easier. I think a bit of transparency wouldn't go astray with how the media are dealing with the situation.

The Sparrow

Podge_irl wrote: »

Unfortunately, not being able to prove it's false isn't really a high enough standard to print something though.

If only the Irish Times had followed this mantra, they wouldn't be in the mess that they are today.

HellFireClub

Speaking from experience, it is an absolutely torturous thing to have to try to confront a culture of bullying and hostility in a workplace in this country.

If you choose to go down the legal route, the injustice will be doubled and you will likely be bullied by a barrister and a high powered legal team that your employer has engaged, into resigning your position, signing a confidentiality agreement and taking a payment to box it all off.

I was watching Kate's family on The Saturday Night show at the weekend and I think the point was completely lost on everyone, that the self medicating, the excess drinking that was referred to, and the way it was implied that this somehow fed into the situation, and almost explained the tragedy that had ultimately occurred, these are all very well understood consequences that will emerge from the sheer frustration of being kept in a depressive and hopeless situation, and it could not be clearer I this situation I think (because of the anonymous letter), that this was what Kate was trying to deal with in work.

Having been through a very similar situation myself, I can identify with the sheer uselessness that describes the kind of management that we get here in Ireland that only increases the difficulties that can and do emerge when a positive relationship at works breaks down, and the psychotic legal tools that then get taken out to remove you as the "problem" as opposed to engaging with you as a symptom of another problem altogether.

raindog.promo

http://transcriptionsdb.blogspot.com/2011/12/newstalk-breakfast-interview-with-kate.html

Transcript of Newstalk Breakfast interview with Kate Fitzgerald's mother.

Amalgam

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/12/05/down-the-memory-hole/#comments

Article blurred out in archives now.. with the words: 'Legal Retraction' visible. All very odd.

Dionysus

Amalgam wrote: »

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/12/05/down-the-memory-hole/#comments

Article blurred out in archives now.. with the words: 'Legal Retraction' visible. All very odd.

Ah Jesus. A search for "Kate Fitzgerald" on The Irish Times website now has no record at all of the article from 9 September 2011.

Has The Irish Times completely lost the plot? This sort of classless behaviour is worthy of one of O'Reilly's rags, not The Irish Times.

Edit: Just to make sure I wasn't imagining that the article has been removed from The Irish Times website, I did a search for the article's name: "Employers Failing People with Mental Health Issues". The article in its entirety is now definitely removed from the website.

Podge_irl

The Sparrow wrote: »

If only the Irish Times had followed this mantra, they wouldn't be in the mess that they are today.

I don't even remotely understand this. If the IT had followed that mantra to the letter they would never have printed her article in the first place. The only reason they were able to was because it was anonymous. If people can't see that the situation changed when her identity and the company became known then I really don't know what to say. I imagine these are the same people who'd complain about a newspaper printing allegations or stories without getting sufficient evidence for them first.

raindog.promo

Podge_irl wrote: »

I don't even remotely understand this. If the IT had followed that mantra to the letter they would never have printed her article in the first place. The only reason they were able to was because it was anonymous. If people can't see that the situation changed when her identity and the company became known then I really don't know what to say. I imagine these are the same people who'd complain about a newspaper printing allegations or stories without getting sufficient evidence for them first.

Surely they should have left the piece as anonymous and not printed the follow up article. How did they fail to see the issues that the follow up article would raise?

crushproof

The article is now Blacked Out on the Irish Times web archive. And the original online version of the article has been wiped from the Times website.
This is unreal, is Prone the new Joseph Goebbels or something?!

Podge_irl

raindog.promo wrote: »

Surely they should have left the piece as anonymous and not printed the follow up article. How did they fail to see the issues that the follow up article would raise?

Perhaps, but I don't think leaving it anonymous was ever a feasible solution. It would have come out eventually once she died. I think they were trying to do the right thing with the follow up article but, naively, didn't envisage the ****-storm it would brew up. Once that happened they were fairly constrained in what they could do. Their options were editing the original article, or removing it entirely. Either was going to cause upset.

Cianos

jerry2623 wrote: »

At the end of the day It was KATE who decided to bring so much pain and hurt to her family and friends not the Irish Times or The communications clinic.
Kate decided to not stand up for her seriously damaging allegation.
People including her family now giving out about the IT altering her last statement to the world seem to ignore that one fact.
At the end it was She herself decided to kill herself and people around her should not be blamed for that

The fact that she appeares to have written the article less then 4 hours before doing this act speaks for itself about her state of mind .

No, it speaks volumes for her commitment and bravery to be able to produce such an article considering what she was going through.

grizzly

In fairness to the Irish Times it would make for a very difficult legal battle. It would be the word of someone on longer living against their employers – hard to fact check such information.

grizzly

Cianos wrote: »

No, it speaks volumes for her commitment and bravery to be able to produce such an article considering what she was going through.

Many people would say that this factor would negate the validity of her story unfortunately – not of sound mind and all that.

Dionysus

grizzly wrote: »

In fairness to the Irish Times it would make for a very difficult legal battle. It would be the word of someone on longer living against their employers – hard to fact check such information.

I'm sure there were witnesses to at least some of the things, and we know for a fact that at least one other employee had dragged The Communications Clinic to the Employment Appeals Tribunal in July 2011 for bullying.

Former employee claims she was bullied at Prone's PR firm


Tribunal told PR firm ‘bullied’ woman out of job


This is before any of us allude to people we know who had bad experiences working there, people who may well be willing to voice those experiences given what has now happened. Terry Prone increasingly comes across like that character played by Meryl Street in The Devil Wears Pravda.

ciarafem

raindog.promo wrote: »

http://transcriptionsdb.blogspot.com/2011/12/newstalk-breakfast-interview-with-kate.html

Transcript of Newstalk Breakfast interview with Kate Fitzgerald's mother.

Two of Kate's friends has written about Kate and what happened:

http://3menmakeatiger.blogspot.com/

http://backfromthepast.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/an-open-letter-to-kevin-osullivan/

She seems to have had a big impact on those who knew her well.

jerry2623

grizzly wrote: »

Many people would say that this factor would negate the validity of her story unfortunately – not of sound mind and all that.

Which is what I was trying to allude to without been hurtful .

People need to also understand it is practically impossible for people with mental illness to get decent paid employment . Employers don't generally want to take the chance as between Paid sickness, time-off, mood swings etc it is much easier not to bother.
Fair balls to The Communication clinic for giving her the break.

BTW I do think Terry Prone is Ireland's answer to Anna Wintour ( The Devil Wears Prada) and runs a tough company but nobody forced Kate to go work there.
I have no doubt as Irelands leading PR company Kids are breaking there neck to work there and Kate was obviously very good to get the job
However ultimately the sad and pathetic part of her brain took over and she killed herself blaming Terry Prone or The Irish Times for this flaw is blatantly unfair .
According to her mother on NEWSTALK today there is a long history of Suicide in the family which is so very very sad .

strandroad

No one forced her to work there, it's true. But one can wonder how it a young person of (as reported) exceptional integrity and intelligence could by affected by working for a spin factory & conflict of interest central. Seeing first hand every day how nasty and bent her passion - politics - is in real life. It's not an influence that can be measured and no one can or should be held accountable, it's just life and life decisions. But I really pitied her in this aspect.

The Sparrow

jerry2623 wrote: »

However ultimately the sad and pathetic part of her brain took over and she killed herself blaming Terry Prone or The Irish Times for this flaw is blatantly unfair .

I really dislike the phrasing and sentiment of that sentence.

Dudess

"Sad and pathetic part of her brain"? Looks like a snide jibe.
Oh and the issue of workplace bullying is solved - nobody forces them to work there don't ya know.

People aren't blaming her employer for her suicide btw, just that she did not find them very understanding of her illness, as she said herself - while also saying she still had great time for them.

jerry2623

mhge wrote: »

No one forced her to work there, it's true. But one can wonder how it a young person of (as reported) exceptional integrity and intelligence could by affected by working for a spin factory & conflict of interest central. Seeing first hand every day how nasty and bent her passion - politics - is in real life. It's not an influence that can be measured and no one can or should be held accountable, it's just life and life decisions. But I really pitied her in this aspect.

Maybe you are Right
Politics no more than PR, Banking, Clothing,Constuction,Religious or a whole lot of other Industries is full of nasty and bent people however that is human life and we all just have to make the best job we can of it which thankfully most of us do.
Sadly for us all Kate did not

Lollipops23

jerry2623 wrote: »

However ultimately the sad and pathetic part of her brain took over and she killed herself blaming Terry Prone or The Irish Times for this flaw is blatantly unfair .

She never blamed TCC or Terry Prone. She was already ill and merely highlighted her employers' attitude towards mental illness.

Dudess

jerry2623 wrote: »

we all just have to make the best job we can of it which thankfully most of us do.
Sadly for us all Kate did not

The passive-aggressive snideness is strong in this one.
Most of us don't have crippling depression.

Dudess

jerry2623 wrote: »

grizzly wrote: »

Many people would say that this factor would negate the validity of her story unfortunately – not of sound mind and all that.

Which is what I was trying to allude to without been hurtful

Sure...

ciarafem

The use of expressions such as 'not of sound mind' and 'mental health' are frequently used pejoratively.

Kate was ill full stop.

jerry2623

Lollipops23 wrote: »

She never blamed TCC or Terry Prone. She was already ill and merely highlighted her employers' attitude towards mental illness.

Judging from the majority of comments on this thread and Breakingnews.ie people seem to blame both the Irish Times and Terry Prones for her death

There also seems to be an underline thread about the way PR companies and the way media works.
PR and the media business including this site are run by people trying to make a living not for the faint hearted or those with a morsel of conscious.

Just look at some of the stories that the Daily Mail, Irish Independant, Sun Star Mirror etc run.
This was the Business that this girl decided to made her profession and for 19 yrs of age did well .

I know some of you feel my words pathetic and sad are out of place but
that is what life is going to be for this family and all the other families of people who kill themselves this Christmas.
So far here in Cork we have taken 10 bodies from the river in the last two weeks.
I have spent the afternoon looking for another which we hope to God will turn up safe . Pathetic and sad is what it is and I do not intend to dress it up as anything else

Dudess

Read this thread again - people aren't blaming her employer for her suicide. I thought it might happen but it hasn't. People are just angry at the censorship that ensued.
Saying nobody forced her to work in the industry is of no use. You could say that about anyone who works in any job. And you don't appear to understand what depression does to people.

strandroad

jerry2623 wrote: »

Pathetic and sad is what it is and I do not intend to dress it up as anything else

Everyone is a ninja before they get depressed.

El Weirdo

jerry2623 wrote: »

Judging from the majority of comments on this thread and Breakingnews.ie people seem to blame both the Irish Times and Terry Prones for her death...

I would like for you to point out examples and links to back up your judgement.

ciarafem

Dudess wrote: »

Read this thread again - people aren't blaming her employer for her suicide. I thought it might happen but it hasn't. People are just angry at the censorship that ensued.
Saying nobody forced her to work in the industry is of no use. You could say that about anyone who works in any job. And you don't appear to understand what depression does to people.

I agree.

Katie's article drew attention to the serious health issues of depression and suicide. The death of Katie is very sad, particularly in light of her anonymous article in the Irish Times. However, there are around 600 suicides yearly in Ireland.

The censorship that has ensued since her identity was revealed is a very worrying issue, and the Irish Times' reputation is in tatters or should be.

Ellie2008

Dudess wrote: »

The passive-aggressive snideness is strong in this one.
Most of us don't have crippling depression.

Couldn't agree more, the girl was 25 possibly she was in the wrong business but who hasn't made bad career choices at a young age. Hopefully this story will make people in the work place be more considerate of those suffering from mental illness.

gozunda

Podge_irl wrote: »

The situation is exceptionally complicated. However, I can't help but feel people are rushing to blame the IT a bit too quickly. They've handled the whole thing poorly, but I think the attacks on them are a bit much. The complaints about their apology are misguided. Perhaps, in this situation, the Irish Times are actually right and there were factual errors in the original letter. The IT don't generally publish anonymous articles for this reason (amongst others). People are also jumping to conclusions because they don't like the company involved. The fact that the girl is dead is a tragedy, but it doesn't automatically mean her words are indisputable fact either.

You work in HR by any chance?...