RTÉ Crime Correspondent Paul Reynolds has told the Barr Tribunal that he did not think it would have been appropriate to use the name of John Carthy during the siege in Abbeylara.
He said that was because of the circumstances which prevailed, and the fact that it would not really have added to the story in any way.
Mr Reynolds said he would have known from the outset that Mr Carthy should not be named because of the sensitivity of the situation.
He said he did not recall the Garda Press Officer, Superintendent John Farrelly, asking him not to name Mr Carthy, but he said this could have been because it was not an issue.
'It may not have been verbally spoken, but we were both on the same track,' he said.
Mr Reynolds said in a life and death situation you would tend to take a cautious approach.
He told the Tribunal that when he got to Abbeylara he thought John Carthy may have had a mental breakdown. Mr Reynolds earlier told the inquiry that he was told at an early stage that John Carthy was suffering from depression.
He said he was given this information off the record by Supt Farrelly, but he was not told Mr Carthy was suffering from a mental illness to a clinical level.
In a statement read at the Tribunal this morning, Mr Reynolds said there were no RTÉ written guidelines dealing specifically with incidents such as the Abbeylara incident.
However, Mr Reynolds said that under newsroom custom and practice the coverage of events such as seizures and kidnappings is informed by a number of factors, including past experience of such incidents and common sense.
Mr Reynolds said he learned of the incident in Abbeylara while watching television at 6.45pm on 19 April. Mr Reynolds said it was referred to on another TV station and he rang the Garda Press Office to get details.
News editor before tribunal
Earlier the Tribunal was told by an RTÉ news editor that he formed a view that John Carthy was a troubled man more than eight hours before he was shot dead by gardaí. Donal Byrne told Mr Justice Robert Barr that he came to this opinion after a discussion with Mr Reynolds on the morning after the siege began.
Mr Byrne said it appeared the Abbeylara siege was not conventional. No demands had been made by the 27-year-old, there were no hostages and random shots seemed to have been fired, the inquiry heard.
Mr Byrne said he was not aware of Mr Carthy's psychiatric illness at that stage, but had his suspicions. He said he fully agreed with a decision not to name Mr Carthy but was not aware of any garda request to refrain from naming him on the national airwaves.
Later, under cross-examination Mr Byrne said Mr Reynolds could have told him the gardaí were not naming Mr Carthy.
