A BUSINESSMAN, Senator Edward Haughey, applied for a court order yesterday to compel the editor of Phoenix magazine to reveal the source of information in an article about him.
Dr Haughey's lawyer told the High Court in Belfast there was a strong inference, that the information was obtained from documents relating to a 1988 libel action against the Sunday World.
Dr Haughey, the £730,000 a year head of Norbrook Laboratories, Newry, Co Down, appealed against a High Court Master's decision, not to order Mr Patrick Prendiville, editor of the Dublin magazine, to reveal the source of information in the article published in January. 1995.
Mr Ben, Stephens QC told Mr Justice Shiel that, when the documents were released to the Sunday World under an order for discovery, there was an undertaking that they would not be used for any purpose other than the court action. But Dr Haughey believed that information about him in the January 1995 article was taken from the discovered documents.
"There is a strong inference that the information was obtained from the documents and also that the documents were obtained by the Phoenix, "said Mr Stephens.
He referred, to statements in the documents including that Dr Haughey had written 14 letters to Newry and Meurne Council alleging irregularities at a caravan site close to his holiday chalet at Cianfield, Co Down, after the owner had refused to sell him a position of land blocking his sea view.
Mr Stephens also referred to a letter Di Haughey wrote to Dr Tony O'Reilly, owner of the Sunday World in which he said the paper's campaign against him was placing his life in danger from the IRA.
Mr Michael Lavery QC, for Phoenix, said the case had not been brought to discover the source of the leak of the documents, if there was a teak, but to effectively prevent further damage to Dr Haughey.
He said that was extremely unlikely, as the information had already been widely disseminated in Phoenix. The plaintiff was also seeking the return of the discovered documents, he said, but the defendants said they had never had them.
It is implicit in the relations between journalists and their sources that they do no reveal their sources, said Mr Lavery.
Judgment was reserved.