Mahon Tribunal fails in bid to gag press

The Mahon Tribunal into planning corruption today lost its bid to ban the media from publishing leaked information.

In a majority ruling, the Supreme Court said the tribunal did not have the power to create blanket confidentiality and such an order would restrict freedom of expression.

The tribunal wanted the press restrained, the judgment said.

And upholding a previous High Court ruling, the judges refused to grant a permanent injunction barring newspapers and broadcasters from revealing details of materials being circulated among the numerous legal teams at the long-running inquiry.

Their ruling stated: “The Tribunal seeks an order which will restrict freedom of expression. It claims that the press should be restrained from publishing information which it has designated as confidential.

“It has not been able to identify any legal power which it possesses to designate information released by it in that way. It seeks an order in very wide terms in respect of unspecified information, which would affect the entire media.”

The legal battle came after the Sunday Business Post carried two articles in October 2004 which the tribunal claimed were based on extensive leaks of confidential material.

The pieces were headlined ’Jim Kennedy’s pipe dream’ and ’Fifty councillors named on new planning list’.

Journalist Barry O’Kelly was ordered by the tribunal to reveal his sources, but he refused.

The case went to the High Court, but in 2005, it refused to grant the tribunal a permanent injunction to stop the paper from publishing any other information.

Sunday Business Post editor, Cliff Taylor, said this was an important day for the press and for the work of journalists and reporters.

“We are pleased that it has come out the right way in the end and also particularly pleased about the terms of the judgment,” he said.

“What is important from the media’s point of view is that the Supreme Court has made it clear that it would need a very good argument for it to rule that the media’s freedom of expression should be restrained and I think that’s perhaps the main importance.”

Mr Taylor rejected claims that publishing such stories interfered with the working of the tribunal.

He said the planning inquiry had been running for 10 years and had published reports and, like the other tribunals, it was only set up after journalists exposed allegations of corruption.