Gerry Adams should be awarded “very substantial” damages of at least €200,000 if found to have been defamed by BBC reporting, the former Sinn Féin leader’s barrister has told a High Court jury.
Declan Doyle told the jury adjudicating Mr Adams’s action against the broadcaster that a 2016 Spotlight programme and related article amounted to very serious or exceptional defamation of his client’s reputation.
However, lawyers for the BBC on Thursday argued Mr Adams was not defamed, claiming that the case was a cynical attempt by him to “launder” a reputation of being in the Provisional IRA and on its decision-making body, known as the army counsel.
Mr Adams claims the programme and article defamed him by accusing him of sanctioning British agent Denis Donaldson’s killing at a cottage in Glenties, Co Donegal, in 2006. He has described this allegation as a “grievous smear”.
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In his closing address, Paul Gallagher, senior counsel for the BBC, said the case is about Mr Adams’s reputation, and this is to be considered when deciding if the BBC acted fairly and reasonably in publishing the allegation.
The BBC argues its publication was fair, reasonable and in the public interest. This defence, under the 2009 Defamation Act, falls under a constitutional protection of free speech, so the jury’s decision may have consequences for freedom of expression, Mr Gallagher said.
The broadcaster also claims the Spotlight programme and related article did not mean the BBC said Mr Adams was responsible for sanctioning the murder of Mr Donaldson. Rather, the claim was presented as an allegation, it says.
Mr Gallagher said a reputation of being a member of the IRA and sitting on its army council is “something that is very significant and goes to the heart of the case”. With this reputation, Mr Adams cannot say his reputation is injured by the Spotlight programme, he said.
He told the jury it is important to bear in mind the atrocities committed by the IRA because we now live in a country of peace, and it is difficult to imagine the fear, tension and horror the organisation created for so many people.
Mr Gallagher said there cannot be a situation where people in the media are afraid to speak because of the consequence of being sued.
Mr Gallagher reiterated Spotlight journalist Jennifer O’Leary’s evidence that she had multiple sources corroborating the allegation against Mr Adams. He said the plaintiff‘s assertion that it was based on a single source is “completely wrong”.
If the jury decides to award damages, these should be nominal only, he said.
In his closing address, Mr Doyle argued that the words in the programme complained of are self-explanatory and should be understood to mean that Mr Adams sanctioned the murder of Mr Donaldson.
Mr Doyle said the BBC fell far short of requirements under law to verify the allegation.
He said the broadcast amounted to a “reckless indifference as to the truth of the statement”, which is “enough for them to fail the good faith test”.
He told the jury that they may decide Mr Adams’s reputation is not an unblemished one, and if they do so, they should take into account what his reputation was in 2016, as a person who, with others, “brought peace to this island”, and as elected and re-elected to Westminster and Dáil Éireann.
Mr Doyle said that “on no reading” is the defamation anything other than very serious or exceptional.
“This is a widespread circulation of a national broadcaster of an allegation of cold-blooded, cynical murder,” he said. Counsel added the jury should award “very substantial” damages.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens began delivering his charge to the jury on Thursday evening.
