RESIDENT Magistrate Lorna Shelly-Williams struck a blow for press freedom yesterday when she refused to place a gag order on the Jamaica Observer as requested by defence lawyers at the closely watched Appliance Traders Limited (ATL) pension fraud trial.

Attorneys Valerie Neita-Robertson and Deborah Martin, representing accused Catherine Barber, applied to Shelly-Williams in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court for the gag order which would have barred the Observer and left its competitor, The Gleaner, as the lone print medium covering the fraud trial.

Neita-Robertson began arguing for the order following the luncheon adjournment, submitting that she was “concerned about reports coming out of the Observer”, and taking issue with being described as a “high-priced lawyer” in an article on Wednesday by Desmond Allen, the newspaper’s executive editor – special assignment.

Neita-Robertson said that the Observer had an interest to serve in the matter, while expressing concern that stories from the newspaper could mislead readers who are not in court.

Apart from taking issue with the “high-priced lawyer” designation, Neita-Robertson did not cite any bias in the newspaper’s reporting of the case.

In fact, co-counsel Martin, in adding to the application, commended the newspaper’s court reporter for reporting which she described as fair and accurate.

However, she charged that the Observer had an interest in the matter, being a part of the ATL Group and that the group’s Chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart “is an interested party”.

“I’m concerned about a party, the Observer, who has an interest in the matter, using its resources to comment on a matter,” she complained.

Queen’s Counsels Frank Phipps and KD Knight stayed out of the application.

But Knight, a day earlier, wrote to the newspaper objecting to the “high-priced” term in Allen’s report which described the near-record number of objections by the defence, saying it had weighed down the proceedings in “a painful tedium of technicality”.

In response to Neita-Robertson and Martin, Gayle Nelson, who is marshalling evidence on behalf of the Crown, said he was “very concerned” by what the defence was asking for. He described it as a “serious development”.

“It seems my friends have never heard of freedom of the press,” Nelson said.

Following Nelson’s response, RM Shelly-Williams said she wouldn’t be making an order on the application. This means that the Observer will continue to report on the matter.

The attempt to get the gag order came just six days after Jamaican journalists joined millions of their colleagues across the globe in marking World Press Freedom Day.

Patrick Lynch, former chairman of the ATL Pension Fund; Dr Jeffery Pyne, former managing director of Gorstew Limited; and Barber, former administrator of the fund, are accused of conspiring to have $1.73 billion distributed from the surplus in the pension fund to workers and, in so doing, they allegedly benefited from the distribution, using forged documents to commit the alleged fraud.

It is further alleged that the distribution was done without the approval of Gorstew Ltd, the holding company for Stewart’s group of companies. The three were arrested in April 2011 after the alleged fraud was discovered in December 2010.

Yesterday, ATL global financial officer David Davies testified during the trial that has been fraught with objections and applications for disclosures and further statements, that approximately $2.2 million was credited to Pyne’s account from the surplus and $1.3 million to Barber’s.

Davies gave the figure following strenuous objections from Phipps (Lynch’s counsel) and Martin. In the end, though, RM Shelly-Williams said she would disregard the evidence concerning the figures.

Davies testified on Tuesday that Lynch’s account was credited to the tune of $2.6 million from the surplus but that evidence was struck from the record following objections from Phipps.

Davies will continue giving evidence today.

Pyne is being represented by Knight.