RTE's confidential personnel file on the editor of the Questions and Answers programme, Ms Betty Purcell, must be released to lawyers representing Times Newspapers in a £30,000 damages claim she has brought for alleged defamation.
But Judge Gerard Buchanan restricted access to documentation going back only to March 13th, 1994, when the Sunday Times published an article by Eoghan Harris on the Irish media and the peace debate.
Judge Buchanan also ordered RTE to divulge all documents relating to a request by Mr Harris in October 1993 to be invited as a guest on RTE current affairs programmes and any instructions which may have been given to RTE employees as a result.
When Mr John Nolan, counsel for Ms Purcell, objected to possible publication of "highly confidential" material relating to his client's employment and career prospects, Ms Elizabeth Dunne, counsel for Times Newspapers, gave an undertaking on behalf of the defendant not to disclose or make use of any document other than for the purpose of defending the action.
Ms Dunne said Ms Purcell's personnel file was necessary in that she alleged she had been unsuccessful in an application for the position of producer/director in RTE in October 1994. Persons more junior to her had been appointed and she had felt it was on account of the Sunday homes article that her grading had been affected.
In addition, Ms Purcell had claimed doubts had been engendered as to her ability to have a fair and balanced view of editing and in particular that she had acted in breach of the Broadcasting Act.
Ms Purcell had claimed that, although the position of producer/director commanded a lesser salary than that of Questions and Answers editor, she had considered the lesser paid position more creative and interesting. She had also pleaded that her prospects of obtaining employment with the BBC had been affected because of the article and that she had been damaged as a result of the considerable number of her colleagues in the broadcasting business expressing their views on the matter.
Ms Dunne said there was only one way she could find out if this was the case and that was by examining Ms Purcell's personnel file.
Mr Nolan said that while the personnel file was not a privileged document it was a highly confidential one and he could not see how his client's future employment prospects could be gleaned from such a file. What was being sought was details of Ms Purcell's career in RTE. If limited discovery was granted, he would ask the court to prohibit the file being seen by anybody other than the defendant.
Mr John Gordon SC, for RTE, said his client took a very serious view of being asked to divulge the contents of the personnel file of any of its employees. It was strictly confidential and if the court was disposed to granting discovery he would ask that it be restricted to the date of publication of the article.
The Circuit Civil Court heard that Ms Purcell, of Lower Hollybank Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin, claimed the article suggested she abused and misused her position to such an extent that the Director General of RTE had to intervene to prevent a bias in her selection of panellists, and that she was unprofessional, incompetent and condoned the actions of subversives and terrorists.
She claimed, by reason of this, to have been damaged in her credit, reputation, profession and prospects of promotion and continuing her work.
Judge Buchanan, in granting discovery of the documentation sought, said Ms Purcell had, by reason of her pleadings, put the question of her employment situation in RTE and career prospects in question. He appreciated RTE had a duty to its employees not to make freely available their personnel files.
He limited access to Times Newspapers and its lawyers and accepted the defendant's undertaking not to publish any matter contained in the file.
Times Newspapers has denied all of Ms Purcell's allegations.