THE MORIARTY tribunal threatened two newspapers with immediate injunctions over the weekend to prevent them publishing stories about the provisional findings in their final report.
The Irish Timeswas contacted by Stuart Brady, solicitor for the Moriarty Tribunal at 11.30pm on Friday night stating that the contents of the provisional findings were confidential and publication of them would be unlawful. He would be duty-bound to prevent The Irish Timespublishing the information, he said, threatening to seek an injunction if he did not receive a response within 20 minutes.
The editor, Geraldine Kennedy, said that the legal options were pretty limited around midnight when the newspaper was already being printed at its printing plant in City West. "I had no alternative but to withdraw the story in these unusual circumstances. The details had entered the political domain a few days previously and were the subject of political discourse," she said.
The printing press was stopped just before midnight and 25,000 copies of Saturday's editions were destroyed. Half of them were already out on the road in delivery trucks and had to be recalled.
A similar threat was made to the Sunday Business Postjust before its printing deadline on Saturday.
The Sunday Timespublished some details of the tribunal's findings yesterday. It is understood that it was not contacted by the tribunal. The editor, Frank Fitzgibbon, made "no comment" yesterday.
The provisional findings of the final draft of the Moriarty report were circulated to the Government and other interested parties last week. They were discussed briefly at last Tuesday's Cabinet meeting and further discussions are planned.
The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources issued a prepared statement to The Irish Timeslate on Friday night. It confirmed that it had received the provisional findings and then went on to strongly challenge them. The department's statement can not be published today because it refers to the detail of the findings.
The Moriarty tribunal has spent years investigating whether former Fine Gael minister Michael Lowry intervened in the mobile phone licence contract which was awarded to Denis O'Brien's Esat Digifone in 1996. The decision to award the contract to Mr O'Brien's company caused surprise in some quarters at the time.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen told Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny in the Dáil recently that the tribunal may have to sit in public session again. "Depending on circumstances, the recalling of certain witnesses may be required for additional cross-examination in respect of the procedure he [Moriarty] is currently engaged in," Mr Cowen said on November 19th.