Jail threat as tribunal moves to muzzle media
The move may leave him facing the possibility of imprisonment.
The tribunal has told the Sunday Business Post that it will also disclose this morning that it intends to seek an injunction against the newspaper preventing it from leaking any confidential tribunal material in the future, before it has been heard in a public sitting.
The injunction being sought against the newspaper, if successful, would have significant implications for media coverage of the tribunals, particularly in setting the balance between freedom of the press and fair administration of justice.
It will also have ramifications for the contention by journalists that they are entitled to refuse to divulge their sources. Judge Mahon told the tribunal last week that while the entitlement had been widened by the adoption of the European Convention of Human Rights in Ireland, the right did not amount to anything close to absolute journalistic privilege.
Two articles written by Mr O’Kelly, which appeared in the newspaper in October, were based on tribunal documents, which had not yet been disclosed publicly. The first related to a deal on property at Coolamber, Lucan; the second named three politicians who were alleged to have received donations, whose names had not been publicly disclosed by the tribunal.
At a sitting of the tribunal last week, Mr O’Kelly told Judge Alan Mahon that he was not willing to identify who had given him the documents. He said he was fully aware of the consequences of not doing so.
Judge Mahon reminded Mr O’Kelly that a failure by a journalist to reveal a source was a matter of the utmost seriousness and may result in sanctions, including imprisonment.
At the same hearing, Anthony Dinan, the managing director of Thomas Crosbie Holdings, the parent company of the Post, said he was not prepared to give an undertaking that the newspaper would not leak confidential material from the newspaper in the future.
Judge Mahon reserved his final decision and has informed the newspaper that decision will be disclosed today. A number of journalists have faced High Court sanctions in the past for refusing to name sources. They include Susan O’Keeffe, whose reports led to the setting up of the Beef Tribunal. The only Irish journalist imprisoned for not naming a source was the RTÉ reporter Kevin O’Kelly in the early 1970s.
The High Court application could result in an order directing both Mr O’Kelly and the Sunday Business Post to comply with the tribunal’s direction. Failure to do so could result in one or both being found in contempt of court.
