Irish Daily Mail columnist Paul Drury has said he was stimulating public opinion in his comment piece about Denis O'Brien which is now the subject of a defamation action.
He rejected suggestions by senior counsel Paul O'Higgins that he was "exempt" from verifying facts for the article.
Mr Drury said the role of newspapers was to inform, entertain and stimulate public opinion.
Mr Drury said he was stimulating public opinion in his piece.
He said he was entitled to do that, he had spent his life fighting for the right to do that and would continue to do so.
Mr Drury was being asked about research he carried out for the article.
Senior Counsel Paul O'Higgins said quotes extracted from a Forbes article about Denis O'Bien could be done "by any computer literate 12-year-old".
Mr Drury agreed but said he did not think many Irish people would bother to look up Forbes magazine and he believed some of the information was highly relevant to the piece he was writing as it concerned Digicel business in Haiti.
He said not all opinion pieces required independent verification of facts which were already in the public domain.
He agreed he had not telephoned reporter Charlie Bird to ask how long he had spent with Mr O'Brien.
He believed the interview had been featured on RTÉ's Six-One News but Mr O'Higgins put it to him that it never appeared on that bulletin.
Mr Drury said it was his recollection it was on that bulletin but it could have been the RTÉ Nine News.
In any case he believed it would have been repeated on many bulletins.
He did not ring Digicel to confirm any facts and said he was commenting on what he had seen on television and this was not a case for original investigative reporting.
That was a completely different type of journalism, he said.
Earlier, the jury heard evidence concerning the date RTÉ reporter Charlie Bird arrived in Haiti.
Dominic McSorley from Concern yesterday gave evidence to say he arrived on the same plane as Mr Bird on 17 January 2010.
However, television reports showed Mr Bird in Haiti on 15 January.
The confusion prompted Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne to comment, "maybe we put too much faith in RTÉ".
When the case resumed this morning the jury was told Mr McSorley had mixed up his dates, leading to the confusion.
Both sides agreed that Mr Bird had in fact travelled to Haiti on 15 January.
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