Gemma O'Doherty has strongly rejected claims she harassed the mother of a young man who took his own life, and that any attempt to jail her for alleged contempt is "outrageous and unlawful".
Ms O'Doherty was brought before Mr Justice Conor Dignam at the High Court on Wednesday following her arrest by gardaí.
The judge agreed to adjourn the application, which could see Ms O'Doherty jailed over her alleged failure to comply with the terms of an injunction obtained by the boy's mother, Edel Campbell, to later this week.
This is to allow Ms O'Doherty to obtain instructions and have her lawyer present in court, and to obtain all the relevant legal documents in the case. Ms O'Doherty was released from Garda custody following the hearing.
Under the terms of the injunction, which is to remain in place pending the full outcome of the proceedings, Ms O'Doherty is restrained from harassing or intimidating Ms Campbell and from disclosing any confidential information about her and her family.
The injunction was granted as part of proceedings Ms Campbell has brought against Ms O'Doherty, over the use of the image of her deceased son, Diego Gilsenan, in the Irish Light newspaper, which is edited by Ms O'Doherty.
Ms O'Doherty was ordered to remove Mr Gilsenan's images from any media platforms under the defendant's control, or from publishing any images of herself and her family on any medium.
It is claimed that in a series of video posts by Ms O'Doherty last year the defendant had made statements in alleged clear disregard and in breach of the court's orders.
This led to the application against Ms O'Doherty over her alleged contempt.
On Wednesday, Ms O'Doherty, who appeared before the court without her legal representative being present or without any court documents, told the judge she had never harassed anyone in her life, or that she had ever met Ms Campbell.
She said that she was defamed and her good name had been damaged, and she had been defamed by Ms Campbell in a radio interview broadcast by RTÉ.
Ms O'Doherty described the injunction against her as being unlawful and said she was not prepared to comply with it.
She said the plaintiff's complaints were an attempt to prevent her from doing her job as "an award-winning" investigative reporter who cares about deaths that have been "covered up."
Ms O'Doherty told the judge that "if you do jail me, it would be jailing me for being an investigative journalist, I would not like to be in your shoes," adding that such an action would make news all over the world.
She said the injunction should never have been granted.
Ms O'Doherty claimed the law which prevents the third-party funding of legal actions, known as 'champerty and maintenance' had been broken by the plaintiff.
She said a fundraiser allegedly for legal expenses had been organised for Ms Campbell that raised over €24,000, and she had reported the matter to gardaí.
Many of the donors to this fundraiser were anonymous, Ms O'Doherty added. .
Ms Campbell, Ms Doherty added, had said in that interview that the defendant "hated" her. Ms O'Doherty said that she did not hate anybody.
It was accepted that she had published "a postage stamp-sized picture of the plaintiff's late son, but said it was part of a story investigating the sudden deaths of young people in Ireland".
Ms O'Doherty said that after receiving complaints from Ms Campbell she decided as an investigative journalist to probe Mr Gilsenan's death, stating that she believes the inquest into the death was "shambolic".
Ms O'Doherty also said that she had posted a copy of the coroner's report into Mr Gilsenan's death, which she said is a public document and something the court could not direct her to remove.
David Kennedy SC, for Ms Campbell, told the court his client wanted "nothing more" than for Ms O'Doherty to comply with the injunction.
However, the defendant had refused to do so, leaving his client with "no option" other than to bring the motion alleging contempt.
The matter had been before the court on many previous occasions, and Ms O'Doherty had opted not to attend in person.
At this stage Ms O'Doherty was well aware of what the application was about, Mr Kennedy said.
Mr Kennedy said that his client was not complaining about the posting of the inquest outcome, but it was their case that the commentary about his client clearly amounted to harassment of Ms Campbell.
Mr Kennedy, when rejecting all of Ms O'Doherty's claims, said it was news to him that a Garda investigation was underway regarding the fundraiser.
He said that given the amount of times Ms Campbell's legal team have had to appear before the courts in respect of the matter, they were effectively working on a pro-bono basis.
Ms Campbell has sued Ms O'Doherty over the alleged unauthorised publication of the image of plaintiff's late son following his death in 2021.
She claims Ms O'Doherty has wrongly and unlawfully used the image in an article on media controlled by Ms O'Doherty allegedly linking unexplained deaths to the Covid-19 vaccination.
Ms Campbell secured an injunction restraining Ms O'Doherty from harassing the plaintiff, or from publishing Ms Campbell's and her late son's images or any personal confidential material about them.
Ms O’Doherty is also restrained from encouraging or inciting others to intimidate the plaintiff.
Ms O’Doherty was also ordered to remove any image of the plaintiff and her late son from any form of media that she owns or operates.
The plaintiff claims Ms O'Doherty is a journalist and the publisher of The Irish Light, a free periodical newspaper, and the publisher/editor of the Irish Light website.
Ms Campbell, from Kingscourt, Co Cavan, claims that despite making several pleas to Ms O'Doherty to cease using her son's image, the defendant refused to do so.
Ms Campbell further claims that the unauthorised and repeated use of her son's image amounts to harassment and a breach of her constitutional rights.
She claims that it has caused her emotional pain, suffering and harm.
Ms O'Doherty rejects all of the allegations of wrongdoing made against her and says that she removed the image as a gesture of goodwill.
