... and it’s not for the first time

THIS CASE is not the first in which Geraldine Kennedy — a former Irish Times chapel officer who remains proud of her NUJ membership — has set Irish legal history on press freedom.

In 1987 she was one of two journalists who won a High Court case establishing that their constitutional right to privacy had been breached when their telephones were tapped on the orders of the government.

In recent years this case has been of further help to journalists. The Irish government has been threatening to introduce a privacy law that journalists say would severely restrict the freedom to report. Newspaper editors and NUJ officials went to see the then Justice Minister Michael McDowell to discuss it. The journalists started to explain there was no need for such a law because the Courts had already found that a right to privacy existed under the Irish Constitution. “I know,” interjected the minister, “I know the precedent”.

Editor wins big step forward for media

Hard on the heels of Suzanne Breen’s sensational victory in her protection of sources case in Belfast comes another in Dublin, and it’s even more significant, says SEAMUS DOOLEY

THE IRISH Supreme Court has upheld an appeal by Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and public affairs correspondent Colm Keena against a court order compelling them to answer questions from a planning tribunal about the source of an article concerning former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

The landmark ruling upholds with renewed force the NUJ’s cardinal principle that journalists have a right to protect their sources. Following the outstanding victory in the Suzanne Breen case in Belfast, the Supreme Court judgment represents an even bigger step forward for media freedom in Ireland.

The NUJ staged a strong campaign in support of Geraldine Kennedy and Colm Keena, both members of the Irish Times NUJ chapel. More than 1,000 people signed a petition organised by Dublin branch and union members were present in numbers at Dublin Castle in September 2006 when Geraldine Kennedy revealed to Judge Alan Mahon of the tribunal that she had destroyed the leaked documents which allegedly revealed payments to Bertie Ahern. They were there again at the Supreme Court for the verdict this July.

The Times story concerned payments made to Bertie Ahern when he was finance minister. Colm Keena told the tribunal he could not answer any questions about how he received information contained in a leaked letter from the tribunal to David McKenna, one of the businessmen contacted by the tribunal about payments said to have totalled £38,500 to Mr Ahern in 1993 and 1994.

Judge Mahon said he was particularly concerned by the editor’s admission that she had destroyed the documents and warned that failure to answer questions was an offence punishable with a fine of up to €300,000 and two years in jail.

The tribunal went to the High Court and won an order compelling the two journalists to co-operate. The court was scathing about the actions of The Irish Times and dismissed the arguments on the right of journalists to protect sources of information. The Supreme Court appeal followed last December 2008, with the judgment coming in July.

The Supreme Court said the High Court had erred in the exercise of balancing the rights of journalists with the need of the tribunal to investigate the source of leaks. The High Court had attached too much weight to what it had called the “reprehensible” conduct of the journalists in destroying documents on which the article was based.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Fennelly cited the landmark Goodwin case before the European Court of Human Rights, which says that an order compelling journalists to disclose their sources can only be justified by an “overriding requirement in the public interest”.

In that 1996 case, brought by the NUJ in support of magazine reporter Bill Goodwin, the European Court of Human Rights stated that protection of journalists’ sources is “one of the basic conditions for press freedom”. And having supported Bill Goodwin, there is particular satisfaction for the union in the outcome of this case which, in terms of jurisprudence, is one of the most significant in the history of the Irish media.

Emmet Malone, chair of the NUJ Irish Times editorial committee, welcomed the stand taken by the editor, saying: “We commend the determination shown by The Irish Times to defend its journalists’ ability to do their work and congratulate our colleagues on what is an important legal victory.”

Seamus Dooley is the NUJ’s Irish Secretary