SINN Fein has claimed a Co Armagh newspaper excluded coverage of its candidates before the election because the party did not purchase advertising.
MP for Newry and Armagh Conor Murphy has accused the Ulster Gazette of making a "deliberate decision" not to feature photographs and biographies of its nine candidates in the area.
He claimed the reason given by the newspaper for the exclusion was "based on the fact that Sinn Fein decided not to purchase election advertising from the newspaper".
The election coverage in last week's paper saw a breakdown of the Armagh, Cusher and Slieve Gullion DEAs. It featured biography details and a picture of each candidate.
However, full details of Sinn Fein candidates were not included and their names were simply listed at the bottom of the coverage. Alliance, UKIP and Independent Unionist councillors were also not featured in the full coverage. Mr Murphy said the Ulster Gazette had contacted the party for photos and biographies of the council candidates, which the party had sent in on May 15. "I feel that the impartiality of the Ulster Gazette has been severely compromised by this deliberate decision to profile all other election candidates in a clearly partisan way, " he said. "We have spoken to the Ulster Gazette editor whose rationale for this decision is based on the fact that Sinn Fein decided not to purchase election advertising from the newspaper. "I will be contacting the Press Complaints Commission and the National Union of Journalists to investigate this blatant attempt to influence the outcome of the local government election."
The Ulster Gazette had last night not responded to a request for comment.