David Norris (Independent)

The interventions of Senator Walsh and the Minister have been useful. We should contemplate also, however, the situation in which the newspaper or media company was served notice that the statement was inaccurate, damaging, misleading and libellous. If a newspaper campaigning against someone publishes a libellous remark, is put on notice but repeats the remark, there should be a second cause of action and even aggravated damages.

I would have been very happy to defend that case but RTE was not. My remarks were perfectly justified and were not attributable to a specific person. I also said that years ago I had been in court and seen the licences being rubber-stamped. I would put my hand on the Bible and say I was there. I can give a contemporaneous account of that incident.

Emphases vary according to different types of media. There is a difference, for example, between the instant nature of a live television broadcast and a prepared article that may be part of a policy. We all have known cases of newspapers hunting people down, and some groups are especially bad. If a person who makes a defamatory statement in a newspaper is served notice that the statement is incorrect but persists maliciously in repeating it, that is cause for aggravated damages. Conversely, however, there should be a different emphasis where there are multiple publications without this notice in live broadcasts. A person should get one bite of the cherry.