A High Court’s dismissal of a libel case brought by convicted IRA bomber Gerry Kelly “should give Sinn Féin serious cause to reassess its approach to press freedom”, an SDLP MLA has said.
South Down representative Colin McGrath was speaking in the aftermath of Monday’s damning verdict in Mr Kelly’s action against journalist Malachi O’Doherty.
Mr Kelly said the ruling was a “substantive judgment,” which he would study with his lawyer.
The senior Sinn Féin figure was one of 38 IRA prisoners who escaped from the Maze prison near Lisburn.
During the break-out, prison officer John Adams was shot in the head.
Mr Kelly has never admitted shooting him and was found not guilty at a trial in 1987.
He had claimed Dr O’Doherty’s comments, made in 2019, had gravely damaged his reputation and brought his standing as an MLA into disrepute.
However, Dr O’Doherty pointed out that the prison officer had claimed Mr Kelly fired the shot.
A judge ruled that it was a “scandalous, frivolous and vexatious” case brought by the former Stormont junior minister, who was ordered to pay legal costs.
Mr Kelly had sought damages over two radio interviews given by writer Malachi O’Doherty, in which he stated Mr Kelly had shot a prison officer during the Maze escape in 1983.
The ruling was the third time in as many months a judge has either dismissed or been critical of a libel action brought by a senior Sinn Féin figure.
In November, first minister designate Michelle O’Neill was criticised for bringing a case which a High Court judge said involved insults “heard in school playgrounds”.
“This is undesirable and not in the public interest,” Master Evan Bell said in his summing up, terming the dispute with former DUP councillor John Carson as a “minor case”.
Later the same month, the High Court in Dublin dismissed a separate defamation case taken by Liam Lappin, Ms O’Neill’s former Stormont adviser.
The verdict in the Kelly case has prompted TUV leader Jim Allister to write to the secretary of state calling for the Sinn Féin representative’s removal from the Policing Board.
The North Antrim MLA and KC said Master Evan Bell’s judgment made Mr Kelly’s position on the Policing Board “completely untenable” and he called for Chris Heaton-Harris to remove the former IRA prisoner from the oversight body.
Mr Allister highlighted how the judgment said Mr Kelly would be viewed as having “lost his moral compass”.
Mr McGrath, whose party leader Colum Eastwood revealed in 2022 that Sinn Féin sent him a letter threatening legal action, said the judgment against Mr Kelly “couldn’t have been more damning”.
He said it “should give Sinn Féin serious cause to reassess its approach to press freedom”.
“Scrutiny from journalists is an integral part of the democratic process in our society - it should be challenging, forthright and, at times, uncomfortable for those who seek power,” the South Down representative said.
“Scandalous, frivolous and vexatious attempts to undermine accountability and scrutiny from the press are designed to make individual journalists and their newsrooms think twice about running critical stories. That is an assault on the quality of our democracy and it should be resisted.”