A HARD-UP poet who tried to claim journalistic privilege while refusing to reveal his sources in a defamation case was fined £2,500 by the Island's top judge on Friday.
Roly Drower, who was the author and publisher of the now defunct satirical website Manxman.com, is at the centre of defamation proceedings brought against him by millionaire property developer Albert Gubay.
Until recently there was a gagging order
on all proceedings, but they have become public following a judgment issued by Deemster Kerruish which concluded Mr Drower was in contempt of court for refusing to name the authors of four statements which form the basis of Mr Gubay's case.
The main proceedings against the IT engineer, musician and performance poet began in England and Wales in March.
Mr Gubay was granted an order allowing him to seize documents and hard disks in Mr Drower's possession. The following month Deemster Kerruish discharged this order. But this decision was overturned on appeal.
Meanwhile the contempt issue raised its head and Deemster Kerruish heard from Mr Drower's advocate, Paul O'Neill, that Mr Drower would not reveal his sources on the grounds of journalistic privilege and under international human rights law.
In his contempt judgment of November 2, Deemster Kerruish dismissed both arguments, finding Mr Drower was not a journalist.
Parts of a sworn affidavit from Mr Drower were included in the judgment.
In it Mr Drower said although he had always tried to be accurate he had 'never pretended to be exhaustively rigorous'.
Deemster Kerruish found Mr Drower was not a journalist and so he and his website was not protected by privilege.
He said, even if he was wrong, Mr Drower had forfeited this protection because Manxman.com had not acted responsibly. He said there was no evidence Mr Drower had checked the trustworthiness of sources or carried out any proper editorial censorship of material published on the website.
Once it was established Mr Drower was not going to change his mind about revealing his sources, Friday's hearing saw his advocate Paul O'Neill go through the sentencing options available to Deemster Kerruish – fine, the sequestration of assets or imprisonment.
Mr O'Neill addressed the first two options by detailing Mr Drower's financial status and his belongings.
The court heard Mr Drower had little money, lived rent-free between his partner's house and his parents' house and had few assets. Mr Drower, said Mr O'Neill, had been unable to continue with his IT job full-time because of the commitments of the defamation case. He had continued part-time and earned £200 per week, of which there was nothing left at the end of the week.
He owed his family £3,000, friends £1,200 and had an adverse cost order against him.
Mr O'Neill said: 'If he is imprisoned today he will enter prison with his conscience clear and perhaps by his actions, by his stance, he may initiate a fundamental review of the law as it relates to freedom of speech, freedom of the press and human rights in general in the Isle of Man.'
But Deemster Kerruish said Mr Gubay's pursuit of the sources was a 'legitimate aim'.
He reminded Mr Drower that it is a human right for a person to protect their reputation. And he repeated his finding that Mr Drower was not and never had been a journalist.
He ordered the fine to be paid by November 11, 2005. Mr Drower will have to pay costs, yet to be decided.
