CHIEF JUSTICE CRITICAL OF ABORTED TRIALS

The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Hamilton, yesterday criticised "hysterical"
applications to have trials aborted on the basis of inaccurate articles in
newspapers.

Judges who consented to such applications were showing a distinct lack of
faith in the abilities of juries, he said.

He made the comment during a Supreme Court appeal by The Irish Times Ltd
and other media organisations against a decision by a Circuit Court judge
to ban contemporaneous reporting of a major drugs trial in Cork last
February. The remarks also follow the aborting of a number of trials,
including murder trials, on the basis of complaints by counsel over media
articles or photographs.

During yesterday's appeal hearing, Mr Justice Hamilton said that over the
past number of years there had been a number of hysterical applications to
have trials aborted because of articles containing misstatements of fact
appearing in the newspapers.

It appeared that judges had aborted several trials as a result of such
applications. The Chief Justice said judges had shown "a distinct lack of
faith" in the strength of juries, who were "quite capable" of understanding
directions to be given to them as to what evidence they were entitled to
rely on and what evidence they were obliged to ignore.

Mr Justice O'Flaherty said the applications to discharge juries because of
media reports were a "kind of virus" which affected both civil and criminal
cases. Legislation was getting increasingly technical and judges should be
able to tell juries to ignore incorrect media statements. Also sitting in
yesterday's hearing were Mrs Justice Denham, Mr Justice Barrington and Mr
Justice Keane.