Republican News · Thursday 17 June 1999

[An Phoblacht]

Injunction against Daily Telegraph

BY FERN LANE

The Bloody Sunday families were awarded an injunction against The Daily Telegraph at the High Court in Belfast on Tuesday, 15 June. The legal victory prevents the paper, which is backing the right to anonymity for British paratroopers, from printing libelous stories about the relatives of the Bloody Sunday dead.

Solicitors acting for the majority of the Bloody Sunday families initiated legal proceedings against The Daily Telegraph after the paper published libelous comments about them last week. Patrick Sherridan of Madden and Finucane has also confirmed to An Phoblacht that libel proceedings against The Daily Mail, also over allegations made against the families, have been started.

In a statement on 12 June, Madden and Finucane stated that they had been instructed to ``vigorously pursue any defamatory comments made by any newspaper and to issue libel proceedings where necessary: ``The families have no intention whatsoever of allowing any section of the English press to attack their reputations in their support of the paratroopers.''

The move follows the increasingly hysterical and hostile coverage by both The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail of the judicial review hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London in the second attempt by former members of the Parachute Regiment and other British soldiers who took part in Bloody Sunday to overturn the Saville Inquiry's ruling against blanket anonymity. The Daily Telegraph in its editorial last Friday even went so far as to make the bizarre claim that the release of the names of five former British soldiers last week was comparable to William McPhearson's publishing the names of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry witnesses in his report.

Both newspapers may in any case be open to contempt of court proceedings - The Daily Mail because of it's `Don't Betray the Paras' campaign and The Daily Telegraph because of its equally blatant attempts to influence the outcome of the judicial review and the Saville Inquiry and to exert pressure on the British government. So far, in the latter aim at least, they seem to be succeeding, with British Defence Secretary George Robertson's announcement that the MoD, in addition to paying the legal costs of the former paratroopers (already £1.14 million), is prepared to pay for `protection' for the five men whose names have already been released and others who claim they will need protection should anonymity be refused.

Tony Blair also tried to have it both ways when he said that it would be ``odd if we were not supporting our own troops in front of an inquiry and arguing their case'' whilst simultaneously insisting to MPs that his government is impartial on the Saville Inquiry.

As the judicial review began last Thursday, Michael Mansfield QC, representing three of the Bloody Sunday families, asked the three judges, Lord Justice Roch, Justice Maurice Kay and Justice Hooper, to investigate what he called an ``insidious and sustained'' campaign in support of the soldiers, telling the judges the clear objective of the respective campaigns was to ``impede the stream of justice''.


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