Newspaper editor told to provide full account of 'journalistic privilege'

Phone remains in independent Garda custody with an undertaking it will not be examined pending determination of the court proceedings

The phone was seized as part of a Garda investigation into violence at a house in Strokestown which had been repossessed in December 2018.

A provincial newspaper editor seeking the quashing of a search warrant forcing him to hand over his phone to gardaí must provide a more full account of how he claims journalistic privilege, the High Court has heard.

The argument was made by Frank Callanan, for the Garda commissioner, in an action by Emmett Corcoran, editor of the Strokestown, Co Roscommon-based The Democrat, over the search of his home and seizure of his phone in April 2019.