Gerry Adams, a reporter who conducted the BBC Focus Program at the center of the defamation operation, said she received “the greatest care” when reporting allegations that he approved the murder of British agents.

Jennifer O'Leary provided evidence at the Dublin High Court on Wednesday.

The former Sinn Féin leader is suing the 2016 plan and accompanying online articles to the BBC.

He denied the allegations filed by an anonymous contributor named Martin, who moved on in 2006 for the killing of Denis Donaldson.

Spotlight claims this was executed by the interim IRA, although the dissident IRA acknowledged responsibility after three years of dissident organisation.

Ms. O'Leary was interrogated by Tom Hogan's lawyer.

She told him she was not “willing” to treat the charges.

Ms O'Leary said she held more than 60 meetings after interviewing Martin and received "confirmation" from five other sources, although they did not appear on the radio.

“If I can’t stand the plan, I won’t be here,” she said.

Mr Hogan told her that she was defending her journalism but had no charges against Mr Adams.

She replied: “I am here to defend the allegations made by Martin based on five other sources.

“The legal point of a defense case is the legal point.”

She continued: “The charge is an allegation.

“Any rational person who watches the program will know that we are making charges.

“After the charges were filed, we reflected Mr. Adams’ denial.”

Ms O'Leary was asked about the draft script for the program, which included Donaldson's family statement accepting the interim IRA's refusal to participate and accusing police of failing to protect him.

Mr Hogan claimed it had been removed from the final broadcast because it would be "taken away" from the allegations against Mr Adams.

Ms O'Leary said script changes were not uncommon and the program focused on what she was investigating.

Judge Alexander Owens asked once: “Did you pull it to make the allegations against Mr. Adams bigger?

Ms O'Leary replied: "That's not true."

She continued to reject Hogan's description of her supporting information as "suspicious".

The reporter also investigated her meeting with many An Garda Síochána (Irish Police) sources.

Hogan asked Ms. O'Leary why she hadn't "tested" the allegations about Mr. Adams.

"It's a sensitive and serious allegation and I feel cautious and fair to Mr. Adams," she said.

“They are undoubtedly focusing on the trigger man.

“There is no doubt that they are not focused on who might direct it.”

Ms O'Leary continued to talk about other sources, noting that they were not "randoms" but people who informed other programs.

Mr Hogan said their credibility could not be evaluated.

She also refuted a “outrageous” suggestion that in her notes she puts words in their mouths.

Mr. Adams denied being involved in the 2006 killing of Mr. Donaldson - he worked for 20 years with police officers and MI5 spies inside Sinn Féin.

Mr. Adams also claimed that he had broadcast poems in BBC Online articles based on broadcasting (BBC NI Spotlight TV documentary) which contained claims from anonymous sources.

The case continues.

Mr Donaldson was once a key figure in Northern Ireland's political power, but he was murdered in 2006 after he was a spy.

In the 1970s, he was interned without trial.

After signing the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin appointed Mr. Donaldson as the principal administrator of the party's Stormont office.

In 2005, Mr. Donaldson admitted that he was a spy in British intelligence for twenty years and then disappeared from Belfast.

He was found dead in a small cottage in Grentals, County Donegal.

Mr. Adams served as president of the Republican Sinn Féin from 1983 to 2018.

From 1983 to 1992, he served as a member of Parliament in his native Belfast West, from 1997 to 2011, and then as TD (Teachta Dála) in Irish Parlia between 2011 and 2020.

Mr. Adams led the delegation of Sinn Fein in peace negotiations and finally ended the trouble after the Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998.

He was detained in the early 1970s when the Northern Ireland government was not tried for suspected quasi-military participants.

Mr. Adams has been denied being a member of the IRA.