Seamus Cooley, assistant general secretary of the NUJ, said Northern Ireland was ‘cruelly deprived’ of a great journalist with enormous talent.

John O’Dowd said management at the corporation had knee-jerked in their reaction to Friday’s verdict at Dublin High Court.

Former Sinn Fein leader Mr Adams won a high profile defamation case against the BBC over an episode in a Spotlight programme.

Mr Dooley said he was concerned that a tribunal, as was being requested by the BBC, could take years.

Mr Dooley called for the completed HR report to be published immediately rather than awaiting the completion of the corporate governance report.