Journalists’ union welcomes judgment in Sinn Féin MLA defamation case

The Master of Belfast High Court Evan Bell said that comments published by Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly in a number of books were reason to strike out the case.

Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

The National Union of Journalists has welcomed a ruling that a case brought by Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly against a journalist was “scandalous, frivolous, and vexatious”.

The Sinn Féin MLA was also ordered to pay costs to Malachi O'Doherty in the case which related to a pair of radio interviews in which the journalist said that Mr Kelly had shot a prison officer during an escape from the Maze prison in 1983.