THE MAN WHOSE work was responsible for the jailing of politician Jonathan Aitken will be in Dublin this week to discuss how press freedom and press regulation can be legally balanced.
David Leigh, the Guardian newspaper’s former investigative editor, will join Ireland’s Press Ombudsman Professor John Horgan and High Court judge Michael Peart on Tuesday evening for the Hibernian Law Journal’s annual lecture.
Vincent Browne will also be on hand to chair a question and answers session following the first panel.
The lecture, entitled “Press for Freedom – Legal Friction between Press Freedom and Press Regulation in Modern Society”, will take place at the Law Society from 7.30pm.
As well as being part of the team that covered the Wikileaks release of US diplomatic and military documents in 2010, Leigh also exposed secret payments made by arms company BAE for which he was honoured with the Paul Foot Award.
The 1995 documentary for World in Action, called Jonathan of Arabia, revealed improper contacts between Saudi Arabian arms dealers and the former Defence Minister. It eventually led to Aitken being jailed for perjury.
He retired in April after a 43-year career but plans to maintain a relationship with the Guardian.
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