The BBC Spotlight team argued it took “care” in broadcasting an allegation that Gerry Adams sanctioned the killing of a former Sinn Fein official and spy.
In the defamation case taken against the broadcaster by Mr Adams, they argued that his reputation was not harmed by the allegation as he was widely considered to have been a member of the IRA and its Army Council.
Mr Adams denies ever being in the IRA and said on the stand that it was “not a path that I took”.
The Spotlight programme, aired in September 2016, included a claim from an anonymous source referred to as “Martin” that the shooting of Denis Donaldson in 2006 was sanctioned by the IRA leadership and that Mr Adams “gives the final say”.
Mr Donaldson was killed in Co Donegal months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent.
The BBC argued that airing allegations responsibly was a central tenet of journalism.
It stressed that it was an allegation that was made, and not a statement of fact, that Mr Adams had sanctioned and approved the killing.
The broadcaster said that after the allegation, they aired Mr Adams’ denial, the claim of responsibility by the Real IRA and the progress of the Garda investigation.
BBC barrister Paul Gallagher SC said the case was taken by Mr Adams on the misunderstanding that the allegation was only based on one source.
Spotlight reporter Jennifer O’Leary gave evidence that the allegation was corroborated by five other sources.
She said she was on the road for months after the source “Martin” made the allegation in a recorded interview in April 2016, and held 60 different meetings with sources in the months after.
Ms O’Leary said she took “care” and was “responsible” with the allegation and said she wanted to be “fair” to Mr Adams by being selective in who she asked to corroborate the allegation.
During the court case in Dublin’s High Court, she said she wanted to be “fair” to Mr Adams, by putting the allegation to sources with experience in the IRA or who had access to intelligence at the time of Mr Donaldson’s killing.
She said that she wanted to put it to people who had been reliable sources before and said because of this, she did not include one particular garda source as corroboration because she had not used them before.
Ms O’Leary said she took the “utmost care” with the allegation and denied leaving out pieces of information from the programme that would contradict the claim against Mr Adams.
BBC Spotlight editor Gwyneth Jones gave evidence that they did not treat the claim like a “big sensationalist expose” and said the tone was “measured” and the language “precise”.
“There was so much care taken over this programme. It was a solid piece of journalism and the result of many months work and a lot of diligence and a lot of rigour and a lot of scrutiny,” she said.
In his closing statement, Mr Gallagher told the jury that Mr Adams could not say his reputation had been harmed by the programme if his reputation was of being a member of an organisation that “held this country and the north as a hostage for three decades”.
“Are we to say nothing about that? Mr Adams would like us to say nothing.”
