One of lowest moments in Irish journalism will not now come under scrutiny More than mistakes led to this libel action which was notable for the journalistic arrogance involved, writes Paul Cullen
The decision by five newspapers to pay substantial libel damages to Julia Kushnir means one of the lowest moments of Irish journalism will never get the detailed scrutiny it deserves.
Although Ms Kushnir, the Ukrainian woman who survived the car crash in which Liam Lawlor died in October 2005, was given her apology in court yesterday, broader questions remain about the conduct of journalists in the immediate aftermath of the death of the former Fianna Fáil TD.
Quite how so many media outlets came to describe Ms Kushnir, a respectable interpreter working for Mr Lawlor on his business travels in eastern Europe, as a prostitute is still not clear. Far more than mistakes were involved; the episode was marked by journalistic hubris, wishful thinking, a dash of sexism, "lifting" of stories written by others and a general disregard for the known facts.
Mr Lawlor and his driver died, and Ms Kushnir was injured, when their car left the road on the journey from Moscow airport to the city. The crash happened early on a Saturday morning, but by the same evening newsrooms around Dublin were churning out stories that bore only a passing acquaintance with the facts.
The headlines say it all: "Lawlor Smash Girl is a Hooker" said the Sunday World; "Lawlor Killed in Red-Light District with Teenage Girl" was the Sunday Independent'stake on matters. For good measure, the Observerthrew in a completely unsubstantiated claim that Lawlor was "known" to frequent brothels and sex clubs in Prague.
The call girl theory - and, as the Observerlater admitted, it was nothing more than a theory - seems to have originated with an unnamed Moscow police source who told a journalist the injured woman in the car "could" have been a prostitute. But "possibly" turned to "probably" as the day wore on, with even the "probably" removed from headlines that were eventually printed.
Meanwhile, all indications to the contrary were ignored. At about 3pm on the Saturday, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, relying on information from his diplomats in Russia, told journalists attending the Fianna Fáil ardfheis the woman was a translator.
Lawlor family sources were saying the same thing.
There was nothing pretty, either, about the response of the newspapers after the stories were printed.
The Observerinsisted it had reported the Moscow police accurately - before issuing a front-page retraction a week later.
The Sunday Independentordered an internal inquiry and never published the results. The Star(which wasn't sued) sent a photographer and reporter to Prague to take pictures of a still traumatised Ms Kushnir, even though she declined to talk to them.
The Sunday Worlddemanded the High Court tell her to lodge €30,000 in court before proceedings started.
Ms Kushnir's background was thoroughly investigated for any peccadilloes a good libel lawyer could exploit before the newspapers, unable to find any skeletons in her cupboard, settled their cases at the last moment.
Ms Kushnir's settlement is one of the largest yet seen for libel and the cumulative €600,000 she will receive from six newspapers represents a small fortune in Czech terms. Yet it could have been larger, and this case was never really about who would win, but what value could be put on the damage to Ms Kushnir's reputation.
As an interpreter living in Prague, she had no connections with Ireland at the time of the accident. Few of the Irish publications that libelled her had any circulation in the Czech capital or anywhere else in eastern Europe. The newspapers, therefore, would have argued that the damage to her good name caused by the admittedly inaccurate reports was minimal.
However, the world is a smaller place than it was, and information about people, even if wrong, is often only a Google-click away.
In addition, High Court libel cases are decided by a jury, and it is hard to see one sending a blameless mother-of-one away empty-handed.
Since Mr Lawlor's death, a press council has been set up and a press ombudsman appointed to deal with cases like this. Mr Lawlor was a unique figure and, time may show, the response of some journalists to the circumstances of his death may also be unique.