Irish Times order ‘restricts freedom of expression’

A HIGH Court order requiring Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and public affairs correspondent Colm Keena to answer questions from the Mahon tribunal about the source of an article on financial payments to former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is “an impermissible restriction” on the right to freedom of expression, the Supreme Court was told yesterday.

The story about payments was at the very heart of the public interest and dominated public discourse after publication in September 2006 into 2007 and through a general election, Donal O’Donnell SC said.

There was no dispute about the article’s accuracy but, when the information came into the possession of the Irish Times, it was not then apparent it would ever have been made public as it was not within the tribunal’s terms of reference, being gathered at its private stage.