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Businessman Declan Ganley received an apology from RTÉ as part of the settlement of his lengthy defamation action against the national broadcaster.
The apology refers to a 2008 “Prime Time” report on Mr. Ganley and his business interests.
In the action, the telecommunications businessman alleged that the program defamed him by falsely claiming that he was somehow involved in the death of a man with whom he had a close business relationship.
This was a reference to the mysterious death of businessman Kosta Trebicka, whose bloody body was found on a dirt road in southern Albania in 2008.
Mr. Ganley operated a company called the Anglo-Adriatic Investment Fund in the country at the time.
Today in Superior Court, Declan Doyle SC, attorney for Mr. Ganley, told Judge Bernard Barton that the action had been resolved. The case was initially filed in 2011.
As part of the settlement, RTÉ’s attorney, Paul O’Higgins SC, read a statement of apology in connection with one of the claims made by Mr. Ganley in the defamation action.
“On November 27, 2008, RTÉ aired a Prime Time special about Mr. Declan Ganley. During the program, reference was made to the death of Mr. Kosta Trebicka and an image of his body was shown, “the statement said.
“RTÉ accepts without reservation, as stated in the program, that the death of Mr. Tribecka had no connection with Mr. Ganley or any business related to him. RTÉ apologizes to Mr. Ganley for any harm or distress he may have caused. “
No further details of the settlement were released to the court and it is unclear who will pay the bill for the substantial legal costs that arise in the action.
Mr. Ganley was represented by attorney Carl Rooney of Johnsons, a law firm specializing in defamation law.
Despite the agreement, RTÉ said it was above journalism on the ‘Citizen Ganley’ program.
In his action, Mr. Ganley alleged that various other elements of the report were also defamatory.
However, no apologies were offered regarding the other issues.
Ganley is president and CEO of the American communications technology company Rivada Networks and has also been politically active with the pan-European Libertas party, which he founded.
He ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in Ireland’s former North West constituency in the 2009 European Parliament elections.
In 2008, Libertas was one of several groups that successfully campaigned for a “no” vote in the referendum campaign on the Lisbon Treaty.
However, the treaty was ratified in a second referendum the following year.
After issuing a lawsuit in 2011, RTÉ denied the defamation or that the words of the complaints meant what Ganley claimed.
The case never went to trial and was bogged down in pre-trial disputes over the discovery of documents.
Last year, the Court of Appeals ruled that RTÉ could question the businessman for deficiencies in his discovery of documents.
But he rejected RTÉ’s appeal due to the Superior Court’s refusal to cross out the action for deficiencies in the discovery.
The protracted pace of the case was criticized by a Superior Court judge who processed a series of pre-trial requests in 2017.
Judge Max Barrett said there were concerns about the “chilling effect on free speech” if defamation proceedings became enormously lengthy and expensive.
A statement issued through his lawyers said that Mr. Ganley was “very satisfied” with the apology received from RTÉ.
“Our client regrets that he had to initiate these defamation proceedings arising from the RTE Prime Time broadcast on November 27, 2008 to vindicate his reputation and had to process the claim at this stage before reaching a settlement,” says the release.
“However, our client is delighted with the result and today’s formal apology.”
In a statement, RTÉ said: “RTÉ defends the journalism of the ‘Ciudadano Ganley’ program and is happy to agree to clarify an aspect of the program as highlighted in the statement read in court. We are glad that after a decade of legal discussion , a mutually beneficial agreement has been reached on the matter. “
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