The Supreme Court yesterday awarded costs to The Irish Times and other media organisations arising out of their successful challenge to restrictions on reports of a major trial in Cork. The trial concerned the seizure of cocaine valued at £47 million in Cork harbour.
The five-judge court awarded one set of costs to be divided equally between The Irish Times, Independent Newspapers, RTE, Examiner Publications (Cork) Limited, and News Group newspapers. The costs will be paid by the State.
In July last year, the court declared the media organisations were entitled to publish, in accordance with law, "true and accurate" reports of the Cork drugs trial.
The court made the declaration following its unanimous decision in April 1998 upholding a challenge by the media organisations to a decision of Judge Anthony G. Murphy.
Judge Murphy had banned contemporaneous reporting, apart from limited matters, of the trial before Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge Murphy's order was in excess of his jurisdiction, the Supreme Court stated.
Proceedings against the ban were initiated in February last year by the five media organisations. In the Cork trial, four foreign nationals were accused of drugs-related offences. One pleaded guilty to a lesser charge prior to the trial and the others were acquitted.
Soon after the trial opened, Judge Murphy made an order that there should be no contemporaneous media reporting other than the fact that the trial was proceeding in open court. He allowed the media to give the names and addresses of the accused and the nature of the charges.
The High Court rejected an appeal by the media organisations against the order but the Supreme Court unanimously allowed the appeal.