The High Court has ordered Times Newspapers Limited, publisher of The Sunday Times, to make discovery of documents relating to a 2014 article at the centre of a defamation action brought by Lynda Meegan, a former member of An Garda Síochána.
In a judgment delivered on 6 November 2015, Mr Justice Barr said the newspaper’s defence of fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest put in issue whether its servants or agents had acted fairly and reasonably in publishing the article. The judge directed discovery in the terms of the notice of motion, including journalist’s notes and other background material relevant to publication. He said he would hear the parties on the identity of the person making the discovery affidavit and the time needed to provide it.
The article, published on 14 September 2014 under the headline “Convicted Bomb Maker was Recipient of Garda Intelligence”, alleged that a former garda officer had sent texts to a man identified in the article as Joe Fee, alerting him to the identities of dissidents arrested by gardaí. The article said the officer had resigned after being confronted and was the subject of a continuing criminal investigation. Meegan says she was the officer referred to and that the allegations were false and defamatory. Those are claims in the action, not findings in this discovery ruling.
The newspaper denied that Meegan was identifiable from the article and pleaded the statutory defence. On the first two categories of documents sought, Barr J held that the reporter’s intention was immaterial to whether readers who knew Meegan would understand the words to refer to her. He refused discovery on that basis.
The judge also rejected discovery sought to support a claim for aggravated damages. He said Meegan could not seek documents in the hope of finding conduct that might establish additional hurt; she had to be able to identify the conduct relied upon. The judgment records that her claim for aggravated damages had no specific pleaded basis.
The ruling concerned discovery only. Barr J expressed no view on whether any documents would be protected by journalistic or legal professional privilege. The newspaper may raise those issues in its affidavit of discovery, and the court would decide them if they arise.