Its decision emerged in public just the week before the scheduled publication of the ABC's "island of Ireland" sales report, due on 23 February.

The 12 titles - including The Kerryman, the Drogheda Independent, the Wicklow People and the Wexford People - are now flagged on the ABC website as "no longer registered".

I understand that ABC did carry out the sales audit for the final six months of 2011, but INM refused permission to ABC to publish the resulting figures.

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