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LAST UPDATE | 29 Apr
GERRY ADAMS’ REPUTATION as a peacemaker suffered “an unjustified attack” by the BBC when one of its programmes wrongly alleged that he sanctioned the murder of a former Sinn Féin official, the High Court has heard.
Adams (76) is suing the British broadcaster for defamation, claiming that it falsely alleged he sanctioned the killing of Denis Donaldson.
Donaldson was shot dead in Glenties, Co Donegal in April 2006. The previous year, it was disclosed that he had worked for decades as a spy for the British security services. Dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for his murder in 2009.
Adams denies any suggestion that he had anything to do with Donaldson’s death.
The BBC denies defamation and claims the programme and publication were put out in good faith and during the course of discussion on a subject of public and vital interest.
The BBC says the programme constituted responsible journalism that was the result of careful investigation.
A jury of seven men and five women was sworn in this morning to hear the case, which is expected to last for up to four weeks.
Adams first sued the BBC in 2017. The case has been delayed by hearings on preliminary issues and over the discovery of documents.
Opening proceedings, Tom Hogan SC, representing Adams, told the court that the essence of the case was “an unjustified attack” on Adam’s reputation.
“Gerry Adams’ reputation is that of a peacemaker. It has taken Gerry Adams a lifetime to gain that reputation,” Hogan told the court.
He said that the allegation that Adams sanctioned the murder of Donaldson “is not true”.
“Many people say many things about Gerry Adams, and he may have sued before, but over time he has let matters go, usually on the legal advice of his solicitor. But he wasn’t willing to let this matter pass.”
Hogan told the court that the BBC “has not come to court to stand over the allegation that Gerry Adams sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson”.
“You won’t hear it suggested in this court during this trial that it is true. The case will proceed on the basis that the allegation is false,” he said.
Hogan said the BBC will tell the trial that they never defamed Adams and that the allegation that he sanctioned the murder of Donaldson did not damage his reputation.
“Words obviously can have different meanings, and in particular in these cases, the case can turn on whether a statement has a particular meaning. But we say in this case, you will have no difficulty in coming to a decision as to what the article meant, because the allegation is put up front and centre both in the programme and in the article.”
Hogan said there was an “arrogance” from the BBC that it could “say anything about Gerry Adams”, including calling him a murderer.
He said BBC will rely on the defence of fair and reasonable publication – that is, that a statement was made in good faith and about something that is in the public interest.
He said the jury will have to decide “whether it was fair and reasonable that the BBC published the allegation made against Mr Adams”.
Hogan told the jury that they will watch the BBC Spotlight programme in court as part of the evidence. He said they will get to see “how the anonymous source was dramatised, the language used, the dramatisation of the interview, and then you can take into consideration what effect that might have on somebody watching the programme”.
He said that in 2016, Adams received a letter “out of the blue” from BBC Spotlight journalist Jennifer O’Leary.
He was asked to respond to the allegations that he was consulted about the decision to kill Donaldson and had the “final say” on the sanction, Hogan said.
After receiving a second letter, Adams wrote a letter to the BBC with his solicitor, stating: “Mr Adams has no knowledge of and had no involvement whatsoever in the killing of Denis Donaldson. He also categorically denies the unfounded allegation that he was consulted about an IRA army council decision or that he had the final say on what was sanctioned”.
Hogan said that even though Adams’ denial was noted in the BBC Spotlight programme and the article, it was never put to the anonymous source that he denied involvement, “and there’s absolutely no reason why that couldn’t have been done”.
“The anonymous source was permitted to make his allegation without any contradiction of any kind,” he said.
Hogan said it is a “journalistic no-no to rely on a single anonymous source for a serious allegation such as this”, because the source cannot be tested or corroborated by other sources.
“We say that the BBC simply did not undertake either the level of verification that was appropriate or indeed, any verification of what their anonymous source was willing to say.”
He said the jury would hear evidence from an expert in broadcasting that the BBC did not meet the threshold for responsible journalism in broadcasting the allegation about Adams.
“It lacked sufficient editorial veracity, principally because there was a lack of independent corroboration of the allegation. There was no second source, documentation. No verifiable evidence was presented to support the allegation, to say to the viewer ‘not only is this man saying it, but others agree’.”
Hogan said there was “no imperative to broadcast the programme when they did”, adding that the BBC could have “gone back to the drawing board” after receiving the denial from Adams but “it’s clear that they didn’t pause for thought”.
He said that because the source was anonymous, his credibility or motivations were not explored. “But critically, he wasn’t asked to justify his allegation which in part was based entirely on hearsay, on something somebody else had told him, and ultimately, viewers were offered no means by which to assess his credibility.”
“Ultimately, the evidence will be that the editorial guidelines weren’t applied and this programme should have come with a serious health warning that the allegation was unverified,” he said.
“We’re confident that you’ll conclude that the publication wasn’t reasonable and fair. It wasn’t, in the words of the BBC, responsible journalism. It was reckless journalism. The allegation was not published in good faith. That’s what we hope to convince you of during the course of this trial.”
Hogan said it goes without saying that “you couldn’t say something more serious about somebody than they sanctioned somebody else’s murder. Not only was it very serious, but it was circulated to a very large number of people.”
He said the jury will hear that the viewership of the programme in the Republic of Ireland reached over 15,000 viewers. He also said that the corresponding article has remained on the BBC News website since it was published nearly nine years ago “with the banner headline ‘Gerry Adams ‘sanctioned Denis Donaldson killing’.”
“We’ve complained about the fact that it remained online, without even any clarification that it was the subject of a legal dispute. We find it hard to understand how it could be fair and reasonable to leave the allegation that they are not willing to stand over on the internet.”
Hogan told the jury that they would hear Adams give his evidence in the case, and that he would tell them “how the accusation that he sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson affected him”.
“He was friendly with the Donaldson family. He still is. He contacted them when he heard the news about the murder of Denis Donaldson,” he said.
“When Denis Donaldson was murdered, the family’s solicitor gave an interview claiming that the suggestion that Gerry Adams had murdered their father and husband was ridiculous.”
Hogan said that Adams could be described as “a polarising character”.
“For some, he’s a hero. For others, he’s not,” he said, adding that they were not deciding the case “on the basis of whether you like Gerry Adams or not”.
Adams began giving his evidence in the case shortly before the court rose for the day. He told the court about his early upbringing in Belfast, his involvement in the civil rights movement and the beginning of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1960s.
This morning, Mr Justice Alexander Owens told the jury of seven men and five women to “resist looking at your telephones or engaging in any of your own research in relation to matters”.
He said a trial is a “controlled process” and that the evidence heard in court “is the matter by which you get to decide the trial”.
He told the jury that they are “the factfinders” in the trial. He said that material which has no evidential value “cannot be considered by you and should not be introduced into the trial”.
He told them that they would hear evidence that the BBC programme had included a claim from an “unnamed informer” that Adams would have been consulted about IRA murders.
Giving what he said was a preliminary observation about the case, the judge said: “One of the issues, maybe the big issue which you’ll be asked to decide is whether the words used in the broadcast were fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest.”
He said the jury “must evaluate whether – in your view – it was fair and reasonable to publish the statement which was complained of”.
Speaking outside the Four Courts before proceedings began, Adams said he has sought a retraction and an apology from the BBC.
Asked about the issue of compensation, he said that he would donate any compensation to good causes.
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