The former editor of the Sunday Business Post, Ian Kehoe has told the High Court that articles published in the paper in March 2015 were not about Denis O'Brien but were about the state of the Irish banking system at the time.
Mr O'Brien is suing the Sunday Business Post over articles published on 15 March 2015 giving details of a 2008 report by accountants PwC into Ireland's banks.
Mr O'Brien says the articles portrayed him as one of the 'developer kings' who destroyed the country and bankrupted its banking system.
The newspaper says the articles do not mean what Mr O'Brien claims they do.
Ian Kehoe told the High Court today that paragraphs in the articles referring to Denis O'Brien stated that his loans were repaid in full.
He said the only paragraph about Denis O'Brien was complimentary about his capacity to repay his debts.
Mr Kehoe said Mr O'Brien was named in the Sunday Business Post article because he was named in the PwC report. He was named as one of the top 22 borrowers in the state, had he not been then he would not be in the newspaper.
He said Mr O'Brien was not central to the story in any way, shape or form, it wasn't about him and he said the use of the words 'secret and confidential' didn't related to Mr O'Brien, it related to the entire PwC report.
Mr Kehoe said the paper didn't refer to Mr O'Brien as a 'developer king' and that the article didn't demonstrate malice towards him.
He said Mr O'Brien was described as a 'great borrower' and there was no suggestion he borrowed recklessly.
Mr Kehoe said he cross checked and fact checked the newspaper report before publication.
He said he was editing a very serious newspaper and the suggestion that he would just 'pick 21 names' [to publish] would have undermined the credibility of the newspaper.
Mr Kehoe said there was no suggestion that the 22 property developers or Mr O'Brien in particular destroyed Ireland or sunk the country.
He said he thought that was pulling phrases from different pages, like a game his 7-year-old daughter would play when she is asked to take different phrases and construct a sentence. He said that is the entire narrative of this court case.
He also said he was aware of the decision to shred the PwC report and was part of it.
He said it's the job of the journalist to inform the public but you can only do that if you protect your sources.
He said journalist Tom Lyons told him it was possible to identify the source from the document so it was destroyed.
He said there were a number of ways the source could have been identified, the most obvious one being a unique individual code on the side of the document, but there are also more clandestine ways.
It was, he said a highly confidential report and there were a whole host of triggers that might have allowed the Central Bank or PwC to identify who was the source, so it was destroyed.
Mr Kehoe was also asked by Michael McDowell, SC where the headline used in the paper which referred to a 'gang of 22' came from.
Mr Kehoe said it related to a phrase used in 1983 when Fianna Fáil members tried to oust Charles Haughey.
He said it was part of the political lexicon, a well known phrase and that in newspaper when you are putting headlines on things you use a very well known phrase.
The case continues tomorrow.
