The board of media group UTV has voted to remove its chairman John McGuckian.
A statement from the company said a majority of the directors believed that Mr McGuckian's close association with TVC, an 18% shareholder in UTV, had compromised his independence.
Mr McGuckian is a non-executive director of TVC.
After the decision, three directors - Shane Reihill, Kevin Lagan and Mr McGuckian - resigned from the board. Mr Reihill is executive chairman of TVC.
Helen Kirkpatrick, an existing independent non-executive director of UTV, has agreed to become interim chairman.
Mr McGuckian and Mr Lagan later issued a joint statement saying they had no choice but to resign from the UTV board, as they believed the removal of Mr McGuckian was contrary to the UK Corporate Governance Code. Mr Reihill also issued a statement saying he resigned for the same reasons.
Both statements said that a majority of non-executive directors of UTV had opposed Mr McGuckian's removal.
