Madam, - Take heart, together with your colleague Colm Keena, from the words of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the US, and largely responsible for the drafting of the Declaration of Independence:
"The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."
No comment necessary, except to say that you are doing fine! - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL DONNELLAN, Merval Park, Clareview, Limerick.
A Chara, - Three respected judges of the High Court have requested that you and your colleague Colm Keena answer questions from the Mahon tribunal. I do hope that you and Mr Keena will not answer any questions that compromise your sources for the sake of accountability within our flawed democracy, which truly needs the media to keep an eye out for us all. Otherwise, one wonders what type of country we would have.
Keep up the good work, - Is mise,
PAUL DORAN, Monastery Walk, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.
Madam, - You are quoted in Wednesday's edition as saying it was "disappointing that the issue of public interest seemed to receive no weighting in the judgment", following the decision of the High Court to order yourself and Colm Keena to reveal the source of an article about payments to Bertie Ahern, gleaned from confidential documents produced by the Mahon tribunal.
The High Court ruled that, in this case, journalistic privilege regarding confidentiality of sources was "overwhelmingly outweighed" by the need to maintain public confidence in the tribunal itself.
I'm puzzled by the Irish Timesclaim that this was a publication "in the public interest". The source was a document from the Mahon tribunal, detailing information which would, in due course, be put into the public domain via the public hearings of the tribunal. What purpose was served by its premature publication in The Irish Times? The obvious commercial answer is that it was a significant journalistic scoop, generating significant publicity and boosting the reputation of that paper, if not necessarily greatly increasing circulation. However, the downside is that leaks from the tribunal damage public confidence, reduce political support and provide ammunition to those who are willing to go to the High and Supreme Courts in order to delay and/or stymie the workings of the tribunal and/or the scope of its ultimate findings.
The problem is further compounded by the destruction of the documents received, allegedly from an anonymous source. This effectively rules out any possibility of identification of the original source of the leak to The Irish Times. The corollary of this is that you nor Mr Keena can now provide any credible assurance that the tribunal itself is not the source of the leak, thus leaving it open to the accusation of resorting to trial by media and depriving those who are under investigation of natural justice. - Yours, etc,
PETER MOLLOY, Haddington Park, Glenageary, Co Dublin.