3 days ago
Gerry Adams to donate €100k libel payout to charity and defends claim he 'put manners on the BBC'
GERRY ADAMS HAS announced that he will donate the €100,000 in libel damages from the BBC to 'good causes', including 'the children of Gaza', Irish-based homeless support groups and Irish language organisations.
Adams was awarded the significant cash sum on Friday after a High Court jury ruled that the BBC defamed him in a 2016 programme, which alleged his involvement in the murder of British spy Denis Donaldson.
The court found the broadcaster had falsely implicated Adams in sanctioning the 2006 killing of Donaldson, a former senior IRA member later exposed as an MI5 agent. Adams denies any involvement in the murder.
In a video shared on social media today, Adams said that the money would go to various charities and community groups – including Gaza charities, Irish homeless organisations and An Cumann Cabhrach, which supports republican prisoners and their families.
In the video, Adams also defended his comments outside the court on Friday, where he told reporters that he had 'put manners on the BBC'.
The comment was widely criticised, with the Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) describing Adam's line as 'chilling'.
Adams rejected this, claiming today that the success of his case was a 'very important and very significant breach' in the BBC's 'monopoly on how it broadcasts 'news' especially in Ireland'.
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'As I said outside the Four Courts, I took this case to put manners on this institution – I stand over that comment,' Adams said in a video shared to Youtube by Sinn Féin.
Sinn Féin
/ YouTube
'I reject the over-the-top responses to it.'
He added: 'Journalism was a victor, not a loser, but only if the lessons are learned and acted upon.
'The British Broadcasting Corporation is supposed to be a public service provider. It is paid from public funds. It upholds the ethos of the British state in Ireland, that goes without saying, but it should be publicly accountable for its broadcasting content.
'It rarely is. That's what this court case did. That's what the jury did. The BBC lost.'
Later in the video, Adams said that journalists 'bear an onorous responsibility not to make false accusations based on unreliable and or nonexistent supporting evidence'.
'There's also been predictable responses from all the usual verdicts to the verdict in this cae. This is not the time to defend bad journalism. This is the time to learn the lessons.
'They too should stop whinging – this is senior hurling.'
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