Date set for Sunday Business Post journalist's court case

A journalist who has been threatened with jail for failing to reveal his sources had a date for his court case fixed today.

Sunday Business Post reporter Barry O’Kelly is to appear at the High Court on March 8.

The Mahon Tribunal is taking the case to force him to reveal the identity of the person who provided him with confidential tribunal documents.

At the High Court today, senior counsel Eoin McCullough, representing Mr O’Kelly and his newspaper’s owners, said he was anxious for the case to be heard as soon as possible.

Fixing the date, the President of the High Court, Joseph Finnegan said he anticipated that the facts in the case would not be in dispute.

Mr O’Kelly published a series of articles based on confidential documents last year to the annoyance of the tribunal which said it had led to complaints from certain witnesses and had made it more difficult to carry out its task of investigating a planning corruption.

However, senior counsel Paul O’Higgins, representing the tribunal, said he anticipated some difficulties. “There may be some facts such as the destruction of documents which are capable of dispute,” he said.

Mr O’Kelly has admitted destroying confidential material to protect his sources. The journalist has said he was fully aware of the consequences of his actions but did not expect to be sent to jail.

He was accompanied in court by Cliff Taylor, the editor of the Sunday Business Post and Anthony Dinan, the managing director of the Post’s owners, Thomas Crosbie Holdings.

The Mahon Tribunal has obtained a temporary injunction which prevents the Sunday Business Post and other newspapers from publishing confidential tribunal material.

Judge Finnegan ordered the injunction to continue. The case is expected to last three days.