Newspaper believed destroying documents was ‘proper action’

THE Irish Times destroyed documents relating to an article disclosing that financial payments had been made to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern when he was Finance Minister in 1993 because it believed that was “the proper action” to take, the High Court has been told.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Richard Johnson, asked Eoin McGonigal SC, for Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and Public Affairs Correspondent Colm Keena, how his clients could reconcile the destruction of documents with their stated support for the tribunal.

Mr McGonigal said the Irish Times believed that destroying the documents the proper action to preserve the source.

When Mr Justice Johnson asked was there “any other possible interpretation” of the destruction, counsel said that was “a matter for the court”.

“Indeed it is,” Mr Justice Johnson replied.

Earlier, Denis McDonald SC, for the tribunal, said the destruction of the documents was “wholly irresponsible” as it was carried out after the tribunal had made an order that the Irish Times should reveal the source of its information. The Irish Times could and should have challenged the order in the courts.

Mr Justice Johnson said that if the documents were available, the court could have read them in order to read a balanced conclusion on whether the tribunal was entitled to an order requiring the Irish Times to reveal the source of its information.

Earlier, opening the Irish Times’s defence, Mr McGonigal read a statement which said the Irish Times had received “unsolicited and anonymously” a document referred to in its article of September 21, 2006, giving rise to the proceedings.

Opening his submissions, Mr McGonigal argued that the documents were not confidential.

Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and Public Affairs Correspondent Colm Keena could face jail terms if they refuse to answer tribunal questions aimed at finding out the source of the article in question.