`Committee' libel hearing
By Nick Martin-Clark
The Court of Appeal in London turned again last week to the libel case
brought by Sean McPhilemy, author of ``The Committee'', against the Sunday
Times. At the heart of the case is an article published in 1993 alleging
that McPhilemy's earlier, similarly titled, television documentary hoaxed
the public into believing in a murder conspiracy involving collusion in
the Six Counties.
The three-judge panel was told that McPhilemy ``still stood 100%'' behind
his programme's ``central thesis'' that a committee of prominent Protestant
businessmen, policemen and loyalist hit-men had organised a series of
killings of Catholics between 1989 and at least 1991. The hearing, however,
centred on an appeal by McPhilemy's lawyers against an earlier ruling that
the truth or falsity of this central thesis needed to be first established
by the court, before it could then move on to deal with the swingeing
allegations of professional misconduct made against the programme-makers in
the article. There they stand accused of tricking their key witness into
appearing on camera, of giving him ``a detailed script of what to say'', of
knowingly putting forward as fact what he had told them was only rumour and
of promising him £5,000 for his co-operation.
The Court reserved judgement for a later date, noting that the case was
``not easy''. For his part, McPhilemy remains confident that in the end ``the
RUC will be the real defendant on trial''.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)