‘Naming O’Brien in article on loans not malicious’ – reporter
‘Sunday Business Post’ piece was ‘faithful’ to PWC report, court told
ARTICLES about the Irish banks’ 22 biggest borrowers in 2008 were in the public interest, and identifying businessman Denis O’Brien as one of the 22 was “not malicious”, journalist Tom Lyons has told the High Court.
Mr O’Brien was named among 22 people identified as the biggest borrowers from Irish banks in 2008 in an “astounding” report by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) to the government in November 2008 concerning the exposure of Irish banks, Mr Lyons said.
Articles published by the ‘Sunday Business Post’ (SBP) in March 2015 “faithfully reported” the PWC report, said the journalist who is one of the co-authors of ‘SBP’ reports Mr O’Brien says were defamatory.
Paid
There was nothing malicious in including Mr O’Brien, who was “one of the good guys” in that he had paid off his loans over five years, Mr Lyons said.
The PWC report put Mr O’Brien’s total indebtedness to Irish banks at €1bn, including some €785m to Anglo, and he was listed in the ‘SBP’ articles in the same sequence as in the report, he said.
He was giving evidence in Mr O’Brien’s continuing action action against the ‘SBP’ in which the businessman claims the articles wrongly meant he was among a “gang” of 22 borrowers identified with the bankruptcy of Ireland’s banking system and injured his reputation.
The defence denies the words mean what Mr O’Brien alleges, denies defamation or malicious publication, and has pleaded “fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest”.
Mr Lyons said the articles named all 22 because that was demonstrative of the concentrated risks in the banks, they were lending too much money to too few people which was “a big deal” in the PWC report.
He said Mr O’Brien was in “strong financial shape” in 2015 as he was three years earlier when Mr Lyons was involved in writing another article, in the ‘Sunday Independent’, about Anglo Irish Bank’s top 13 borrowers.
There was a “fear factor” about including Mr O’Brien in the ‘SBP’ articles but he and ‘SBP’ editor Ian Kehoe decided they had “to be brave” and not leave Mr O’Brien out “because he is a special case or could sue us or affect our job prospects into the future”.
Mr Lyons said he was never of the view Mr O’Brien’s borrowing brought down the country.
“That’s ridiculous, no individual could bring down the country.”
Hatchet
Earlier Mr O’Brien, in completing evidence under cross-examination, said articles in the ‘SBP’ which named him as among the 22 biggest borrowers from Irish banks in 2008 were a “hatchet job page by page”.
He was asked about earlier evidence from him concerning the ‘Sunday Independent’ article of April 2012 written by Mr Lyons – who was then working for the title – and Nick Webb and published with a strapline, ‘Anglo’s Top 13 Buccaneer Borrowers’.
Mr O’Brien said last week, following lengthy correspondence between his spokesman James Morrissey and the newspaper, he believed he got an apology from the then Independent group managing editor Michael Denieffe over “coverage”.
Yesterday, he said what he had said last week was he wasn’t entirely sure about that matter and would check.
Having done so, he said there was an apology but it had “nothing to do” with the April 2012 article. He apologised for the confusion.
The case continues.