Time to tighten up laws on defamation

BY any reckoning, former IRA terrorist Nicky Kehoe had a pyrrhic victory at the High Court yesterday. He was awarded just €3,500 after suing RTÉ for defamation.

It is clear that the members of the jury didn’t believe Mr Kehoe, previously a Sinn Féin councillor and now working for the party as a political manager, had suffered any great harm. Nor, it is reasonable to assume, were they of the opinion that the national broadcaster was hugely at fault. The issue of costs has yet to be decided, but it is entirely possible that Mr Kehoe could find himself facing a legal bill far in excess of his paltry damages.

Perhaps more than anything, this case highlights the big problem with Ireland’s defamation laws. Plenty of other jurisdictions stipulate that the plaintiff must have been significantly wronged. In this instance, a clarification was broadcast before the programme had ended. The claims were also demolished on air by his colleague Eoin Ó Broin. So anyone who heard the original allegations will almost certainly have heard them being corrected.

It shouldn’t be enough that someone can take defamation proceedings if they’re slightly miffed at what has been said about them. The criteria should be tightened so that cases can only proceed where real and significant harm can be shown.

If that had happened here, both Nicky Kehoe and RTÉ would have been spared a lengthy legal process that has ultimately ended up with no winners.