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Joe Giltrap : Editor must defy courts and protect sources
A NEWSPAPER editor in Ireland has been ordered by the High Court to reveal
her sources of information after an article appeared about cash payments
made to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern back in the early 1990s when he was Minister
for Finance.
Geraldine Kennedy and her reporter Colm Kenna have been told they could
face jail if they continue to disobey the court’s ruling.
Both journalists are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Who will ever talk to them in confidence again if they comply with the
court’s decision?
They have to stick to their guns. They cannot afford to reveal their sources.
The National Union of Journalists said it was disappointed and the decision
had serious implications for journalism.
The revelations were most certainly in the public’s interest unlike
some of the nonsense and drivel that goes out under that dubious heading
from time to time.
Whoever passed on the information did so in the belief that the nation
should know about it.
After all, we are not talking about an anonymous civil servant in an obscure
department committing a minor financial indiscretion.
We are talking about our elected Taoiseach — the leader of our government
— receiving cash payments from businessmen.
The public have a right to know why he received these payments. It is
quite incredible how selective amnesia has affected so many politicians
in Ireland.
The thing that amazes me though is how people with such bad memory can
function at all on a day-to-day basis never mind run the country.
Mind you, the way they run the country probably says it all. I rest my
case your honour! |
