The price of free speech: Keogh judgment will dampen frankness

Stepping back further from the line, as distinct from being careful not to step over will be a factor in public conversation, writes Gerard Howlin.

COMMENT is not as cheap as it was. That’s the lesson from Sinn Féin activist Nicky Kehoe’s case against RTÉ, which speared former Labour TD Joe Costello for being 65% responsible for a libel which the High Court upheld.

The remarks were made on Saturday with Claire Byrne in October 2015. It then awarded the sum of €10,000 to Kehoe, which as Costello was deemed 65% responsible, yields only €3,500 from RTÉ. That’s likely all that Kehoe has coming to him as Costello was not being sued by Kehoe. The bigger issues are the costs and consequences.