The National Union of Journalists has welcomed the High Court's refusal to grant an injunction to prevent a newspaper publishing confidential documents of the planning tribunal.
NUJ general secretary Seamus Dooley said the decision by Mr Justice Peter Kelly not to restrict the Sunday Business Post's right to publish tribunal documents was extremely significant.
He particularly welcomed the "clear language" used by Mr Justice Kelly and the judge's description of the tribunal application as "all-encompassing" and "a blunderbuss".
"This decision shows that people cannot simply decide that a piece of information is confidential simply because they stamp it so. The tribunal has to be allowed do its work, but it must be subject to scrutiny," he said.
The tribunal, which has been plagued by media leaks throughout its eight-year existence, is currently deciding whether to appeal the judgment to the Supreme Court.
Yesterday's decision will add further to the problems faced by the inquiry, whose three main lines of investigation are blocked or delayed by legal action. The tribunal is scheduled to finish in March 2007.
Mr Dooley said there was an onus on journalists to be sensitive when publishing confidential tribunal information, and to make sure they were not being "spun a line" by a vested interest.
"This might mean going to the people named in the material. After all, just because an allegation is made about someone in a tribunal document doesn't mean it's true."
The Sunday Business Post, whose publication last year of several articles based on confidential tribunal statements prompted the inquiry to seek the injunction, also welcomed the judgment.
Editor Cliff Taylor described it as "a landmark case" which would have major implications for the way journalists did their work.
"This newspaper and other media were instrumental in uncovering the facts that led to the setting up of the tribunal, so it was unfortunate that the inquiry sought to restrict our work," he said.
The journalist who wrote the stories, Barry O'Kelly, said it was "a big day for the media generally" which would now be able to look at "the stories behind the tribunal".
