Jury remains out on libel awards by juries

The Court of Appeal’s ruling in favour of a tabloid newspaper in the case of a €900,000 award against it has given new hope for campaigners for press freedom, writes Dan Buckley.

“I DON’T believe that we are ever going to have first amendment protection like in the US,” lamented RTÉ’s director general Noel Curran to an Oireachtas committee last year.

We may, though, be getting a little closer to American style freedom of the press, if last week’s decision by our new Court of Appeal is anything to go by.