Northern Ireland Journalists Working Under Paramilitary Threats

Some 19 months after journalist Lyra McKee was killed with a shot in the head while covering a protest involving dissident Republicans in Londonderry, other reporters in Northern Ireland are now facing threats directed against them.

Loyalist paramilitaries said they would target a journalist working for the Belfast Telegraph. According to the paper, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) believes the threat was real and that the group “may intend carrying out an attack,” the BBC reported.

In May, a number of reporters with the Sunday Life and Sunday World were also warned about imminent attacks, the threats believed coming from the south-east Antrim Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a splinter group engaged in crimes involving dealing drugs.

Politicians who condemned the threats issued in May were also threatened, the three papers targeted owned by Independent News & Media (INM) as journalists continue to face harassment and intimidation.

Eoin Brannigan, Editor-in-Chief of the Belfast Telegraph and the Sunday Life, said: "This is the second time this year we've had our journalists threatened in this manner.”

Séamus Dooley, Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said "yet again a journalist is faced with threats simply for doing their job. Threats and intimidation have no place in Northern Ireland and journalists will not buckle in the face of these tactics."

Justice Minister Naomi Long tweeted: "Journalistic freedom is vital in any democracy. Those who oppose it are enemies of freedom and democracy. There is no place for this kind of intimidation and threat in our community. It should be withdrawn and those behind it should feel the full force of the law."

Amnesty International called for the threat to be "lifted immediately”.

Northern Ireland Programme Director Patrick Corrigan, said: "Such threats are a disgusting attempt to intimidate journalists from doing their jobs and constitute an attack on freedom of the press. We send our solidarity to the journalist concerned.”

He added that, "We have seen a sustained pattern of despicable threats against journalists from both Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries in recent years. For too long, such groups have been able to make such threats against the media in Northern Ireland with apparent impunity. That must end. We look to the authorities to hold those responsible to account,” The Belfast Telegraph reported.

Ulster Unionist justice spokesman Doug Beattie added: "This time, and not for the first time, they have issued a threat against a Belfast Telegraph journalist who was just doing their job.

"We as a society have a choice. We either stand up to the bullies, or we allow ourselves to be bullied. To rid these self-interested, money-grabbing criminals from our society, we must stand together, and I stand with the Belfast Telegraph journalist who has been threatened."

In July, a 27-year-old man was arrested for the killing of McKee, who was standing near a police vehicle when hit by a bullet as protesters were clashing with officers in another demonstration. Republicans increasingly demand an end to British sovereignty in favor of union with Ireland.

The New IRA took responsibility for the killing and offered its “full and sincere apologies” to her loved ones, saying she was “tragically killed while standing beside enemy forces,” and that her death was accidental.

Owen Reidy, Assistant General-Secretary for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said the group would support the journalists and lashed out at the paramilitaries, stating that while the group was pretending to defend the working class, they were in fact making them victims.

“These organized criminals do not deserve the time given to them by well-intentioned people. They have nothing more to contribute. They deserve to be shunned for threatening public servants who shine lights and speak truths to power."