(CPJ/IFEX) – A Northern Irish journalist does not have to hand over his notes on the 1989 murder of a Belfast lawyer, the province’s senior judge ruled on 27 October 1999. **Updates IFEX alerts of 10 September and 3 September 1999** Ed Moloney, the Northern Ireland editor of the Dublin-based “Sunday Tribune”, had faced up […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – A Northern Irish journalist does not have to hand over his
notes on the 1989 murder of a Belfast lawyer, the province’s senior judge
ruled on 27 October 1999.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 10 September and 3 September 1999**
Ed Moloney, the Northern Ireland editor of the Dublin-based “Sunday
Tribune”, had
faced up to five years in jail and unlimited fines for refusing to comply
with an earlier court order to hand over his notes to British authorities.
Scotland Yard Deputy Commissioner John Stevens had asked the courts to
compel Moloney to hand over his notes after the journalist published a story
on 29 June in which he reported that Alfred Stobie, the man charged with the
1989 murder of Belfast lawyer Patrick Finucane, was a double agent working
for the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
In August, CPJ wrote to Stevens urging that he abandon all efforts to compel
Moloney to hand over his notes. “Democratic countries do not jail
journalists for carrying out their professional responsibilities,” the
letter noted. “For Great Britain to do so.would send a terrible message to
repressive governments throughout Europe that use laws guarding ‘state
secrets’ or ‘national security’ to silence journalists and suppress
investigations.”
In an e-mail message sent to CPJ on 27 October, Moloney hailed the court
ruling as “a landmark decision for journalism in Ireland and Britain. It
ends the power the authorities had until to now to go on fishing expeditions
through journalists’ filing cabinets and by so doing enhances the watchdog
role of the media on this side of the Atlantic.”
