Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that the Government intends to change Irish defamation laws.
Speaking in response to a question on Gerry Adams recently winning a defamation case against the BBC, Mr Martin said that a change in the laws was needed to allow for a balanced environment.
"I think the defamation laws need to be changed. We're going to change them. We've published heads of the bill, and Minister (for Justice, Jim) O'Callaghan is going to proceed. We're going to do it in this Government. We said we would," he said.
"We will look at the pre-legislation, it'll go to the Oireachtas, but a lot of work has been done on it. Minister James Browne did a lot of work on that in the previous Government, he’s a good legislator.
"I think we do need to get it through to create a balanced environment for commentary and for investigative journalism," the Taoiseach added.
Mr Adams took the BBC to court over a 2016 episode of its Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, which he said defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, in which he denies any involvement.
Last month, a jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour and awarded him €100,000.
The BBC, which was found by the jury not to have acted in good faith nor in a fair and reasonable way, was also ordered to pay the former Sinn Féin leader's legal costs.
At the time, the director of BBC Northern Ireland Adam Smyth said there were "profound" implications from the jury's decision.
"As our legal team made clear, if the BBC's case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it's hard to see how anyone's could - and they warned that today's decision could hinder freedom of expression," he said.
Additional reporting PA
