IT was "utter nonsense" to suggest that the views in his December 1992 article concerning Mr Proinsias De Rossa were dictated to him, Mr Eamon Dunphy told the court.
He said he had complete freedom to write whatever he wanted in the Sunday Independent "subject to the laws of libel", and the editor of that paper, Mr Aengus Fanning, was a "dream editor from a serious journalist's point of view".
Counsel for Independent Newspapers, Mr Kevin Feeney SC, said it had been implied by Mr De Rossa that, in relation to the 1992 article, there had been a decision to achieve a particular end which was imposed by the editor and the paper.
Mr Dunphy replied that this was "utter nonsense". All of the views expressed in the article were his own and he had not been influenced or dictated to by anybody.
Mr Dunphy said the columnists in the Sunday Independent were free to write whatever they wanted and there was no "party line".
Mr Dunphy had earlier spent his opening testimony outlining details of his career in football and subsequent entry into journalism.
He won 23 international caps for Ireland, many of them because Johnny Giles "didn't turn up".
Born in Drumcondra in Dublin in 1945, he was unable to remain in school beyond the age of 13 because his family could not afford the second level fees. He worked for a year as a messenger boy for a shop in Nassau Street.
As a soccer player he was capped for Ireland at schoolboy level and in 1960, aged IS, he joined Manchester United as an apprentice.
At the end of his two year apprenticeship he was offered a full time contract. But he was not good enough to play for the first team and at 19 he moved to York City for £4,000. Five months later he joined Millwall for £10,000. He stayed there for nine seasons.
At Millwall he became active in the players' union, the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), and was involved in agitating for the education of young players.
In 1973 he left Millwall for Charlton Athletic, where he spent two seasons. He then joined Reading for two seasons before returning to Ireland in 1977, where he became player/coach at Shamrock Rovers where John Giles was manager. While at Millwall he kept a diary of his last season.
The diary resulted in a book, Only A Game?, which was published in 1975. It was considered more revealing than most football books of the time and did well. Before returning home he wrote articles about football in a number of publications, including the Guardian, the Observer and the Sunday Times.
An 18 month stay at Shamrock Rovers he was out of work for a while, but Tim O'Connor offered him a column in the Sunday World for which he was paid £40. Then Vincent Browne, who was editor of Ma gill magazine, made him an offer - but with a condition attached.
"The condition was I would tell him what I thought and he would write the articles for me," he said. He declined but Mr Browne generously recommended him for a job with the new Sunday Tribune.
Mr Dunphy described subsequent spells with both the Sunday Independent and the Sunday Tribune, which he left on the second occasion after "I had a row with Vincent". He was again out of work when the new editor of the Sunday Independent, Mr Aengus Fanning, offered him a job in 1985. He did not take a job but began working for the paper on a week to week basis.