(RSF/IFEX) – Police have refused to extend a protection programme to a reporter facing death threats. The journalist works for the Northern Ireland newspaper “Sunday World”, for which journalist Martin O’Hagan was working when he was murdered by a loyalist paramilitary in September 2001. No one has been brought to justice for the killing. “Reporters […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Police have refused to extend a protection programme to a reporter facing death threats. The journalist works for the Northern Ireland newspaper “Sunday World”, for which journalist Martin O’Hagan was working when he was murdered by a loyalist paramilitary in September 2001. No one has been brought to justice for the killing.
“Reporters Without Borders joins Index on Censorship and Article 19 in condemning this decision,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.
“The murder of Martin O’Hagan reminds us that investigative journalists in Northern Ireland risk their lives. Several media, including the ‘Sunday World’, work constantly under threat from the paramilitary groups, which forces them into self-censorship. We call on the British government not to take threats against the ‘Sunday World’ reporter so lightly and to give him the protection he needs,” it added.
For security reasons, the “Sunday World” declined to name their reporter under threat, who has often investigated the activities of paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. After receiving a third death threat in August 2006, he informed the police about it. They told him to take extra security measures.
At the start of November, security minister in the Northern Ireland Office Paul Goggins conceded that the journalist was in “considerable danger” but refused to include him in a special protection programme. “Your profession is not one covered by our protection programme,” he replied to a reporter’s question.
This refusal has been criticised by several press freedom organisations which fear that journalists in Northern Ireland could suffer the same fate as Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered on 7 October.
