Tribunal documents - Good news day as paper is vindicated

It was important that the Sunday Business Post was vindicated yesterday in the High Court in the legal attempt by the Mahon Tribunal to stop publication of documents which the tribunal had professed to be confidential.

The newspaper refused to refrain from publishing documents deemed confidential by the tribunal, having previously published such stories by journalist Barry O’Kelly.

He had also refused to reveal his sources to the tribunal, for which he could have faced a jail sentence on a charge of contempt of court, although that was not an issue before yesterday’s hearing.

When no undertakings were forthcoming from him or the newspaper, which is owned by Thomas Crosbie Holdings, the tribunal sought, and was granted, an interim injunction, and yesterday, Mr Justice Kelly gave judgement on the full hearing which took place earlier this year. Mr Justice Kelly said the orders sought by the tribunal could not be regarded as proportionate and they sought to enforce a species of confidentiality created unilaterally by the tribunal.

From a public concern aspect, it was encouraging that the outcome endorsed the principled stance which the newspaper maintained, although it is open to the tribunal to appeal the decision.

They asserted at all times that publication of leaked confidential tribunal evidence had been in the public interest. Because of the prevailing laws in this country, the newspaper was forced to embark on a lengthy and potentially costly course, but one which it was prepared to do.

Because of the sometimes doubtful standards applied in some aspects of the public life of modern Ireland, many issues might otherwise have remained barred from public scrutiny had newspapers been, effectively, gagged.

The tenacity and courage of the Sunday Business Post will give some measure of reassurance to the public that the media is not always motivated by profit.

For the public good to be better served, it is essential that the Government update the draconian laws governing privacy and defamation.