Threats to journalists have not gone away

“THIS IS the third time I have been to ADM and the third time I have spoken about threats to journalists in Northern Ireland,” said Aine McEntee of Belfast branch.

She cited a list of colleagues — reporters and editors on the Sunday World and the Andersonstown News — who have received threats from paramilitaries, including bullets through the post.

Aine McEntee, a reporter for Andersonstown News, reminded delegates threats can lead to death, as they did for “our friend and dedicated colleague Martin O’Hagan”, gunned down outside his home in Lurgan in September 2001.

Una Murphy of Northern Ireland Broad-casting said the threats were very real.

The Belfast motion condemned the Police Service of Northern Ireland for its failure to bring the perpetrators to justice and called on the union to seek international support to bring about prosecutions.

It also called for journalists to be given access to the Key Personnel Protection Scheme. Irish Secretary Seamus Dooley said that it had taken intervention from the union to get one member facing imminent threats covered by the scheme and to win assurances there was no bar to others joining the scheme in future.

 

 

 

The Journalist is published by the National Union of Journalists