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Star man gets red card over Town revelation

The Ipswich Star was banned from a press conference – and had its reporter thrown out – because the paper had sourced Ipswich Town FC’s annual accounts before they were published by the club.

The accounts were uncovered by the paper through “legitimate and honest journalism”, according to editor Nigel Pickover.

And the reporter at the meeting even told football club staff himself that the paper had a copy of the accounts, which show the team’s precarious financial state.

Sources had leaked the figures in advance of the meeting, which was held to hand over an embargoed copy of the annual report. It was due out on Thursday – when senior club officials were due to be in the Czech Republic for a football match.

But as soon as club chairman David Sheepshanks found out the Star had the secret details, he demanded they be suppressed until after the embargo.

Reporter Paul Geater (above) told the meeting that the Star would respect that – but added the paper had a duty to publish the information it had obtained independently of the press conference.

A phone call was made to Nigel Pickover, who told the club he was the editor of the paper, and not them, and Paul was told that because it was the paper’s intention to publish the figures – which it did – the club was not prepared for the Star to be present at the press conference.

“The chairman was told about your leak and asked communications director Alesha Gooderham to contact your editor about this,” Ipswich Town press manager Terry Baxter told Paul.

“Because you are going ahead and publishing this, I’m afraid we have to ask you to leave the press conference.

“It’s nothing personal,” he added.

Lifelong fan Paul is a respected journalist in the region, specialising in politics, and has also been a season ticket holder at the club for 20 years.

Editor Nigel said: “It was a terrible way to treat him.

“The first query is why on earth he was asked to leave.

“This is because we had information that the club wanted to manage in its own way.

“While they have every right to manage their affairs as they see fit, they certainly cannot manage the Evening Star.

“It’s our duty to tell the readers information as we see it without hindrance or spin.

“It is very significant that the day’s press conference was embargoed until Thursday – two days ahead!

“This move would see news of the hole in Town’s finances being revealed on Thursday, handily when the club’s directors would be in the Czech Republic.”

He added that The Evening Star was Ipswich Town’s biggest supporter and was desperately sad that they are currently on the edge of a relegation fight just six months after joining the Premiership.

He said: “The land of milk and honey often described by David Sheepshanks is a long way off now and this newspaper has every right to question the state of the club.”

The story told how the club had made a loss of £3.3m for the 13-month period ending in June.

It spawned the main story on the back page about the loss, a front page about Paul being thrown out of the press conference, an editor’s comment, a sports editor’s comment and a poll on whether the Star should have revealed the news – or waited, as the club wished.

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