The Northern editor of the Sunday Tribune, Mr Ed Moloney, emerged victorious from the High Court in Belfast yesterday after a court order instructing him to hand over interview notes to police investigating the killing of Mr Pat Finucane was overturned.
Visibly emotional, Mr Moloney said the decision delivered by the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, Sir Robert Carswell, had vindicated his refusal to relinquish notes of interviews he had conducted with a loyalist, Mr William Stobie, a self-confessed Special Branch informer, who has been charged with the 1989 killing.
"It will make the authorities think twice before they ever try to do this against a journalist again," he said.
"The Lord Chief Justice has made it quite clear that the police have got to establish a case for needing to see journalistic material. They can't just wade in there and automatically assume they can get it," added Mr Moloney.
He thanked his family, friends, colleagues and the editor of the Sunday Tribune, Mr Matt Cooper, for standing by him.
According to Mr Moloney, the manner in which detectives under the command of Mr John Stevens, recently appointed commissioner of the Metropolitan police in London, had pursued his interview notes raised "very serious question" on how the inquiry was being conducted.
"The RUC back in 1990 had over 47 hours of conversations with William Stobie. I had five hours with him and ended up with 10 pages of typed notes. They have 122 pages of typed notes literally peppered with names. They never needed my notes."
In a statement yesterday, the Stevens inquiry team said they accepted the court decision but repeated their assertion that Mr Moloney's notes would contribute to the investigation.
"It was our view that in the unusual circumstances of this present case, where William Stobie had given permission for Mr Moloney to disclose all the facts, there is no source to protect, and making an application was in this instance the proper course of action for us to make."
Mr Stobie, a former UDA quartermaster, has denied being directly involved in the killing, saying he did not know who the target was, but informed his police handlers the night Mr Finucane was killed that an attack was imminent.
The newspaper's editor, Mr Cooper, welcomed yesterday's decision and said it justified their lengthy court battle. "It is not just a good day for us but a great day for journalism".
He paid tribute to the newspaper's legal team and Mr Moloney.
The president of the National Union of Journalists, Mr Christy Loftus, said the case would probably not be the last time a journalist would be pursued for information by the authorities, but yesterday's decision would make it more difficult.
SDLP Assembly member, Mr Alex Attwood, said the judgment would require fuller examination, but added: "it appears that the powers of the police have been constrained, and this is of importance and precedence."