Journalists highlight climate of fear

A new report by the Amnesty International human rights organisation has described Northern Ireland as the “most dangerous place in the UK” for journalists.

Reporters are facing regular death threats and attacks, with most of the threats coming from “a range of proscribed paramilitary groups, loyalist and republican, as well as from armed organised crime groups, some with links to paramilitaries”. But few perpetrators have been prosecuted.

Journalists interviewed for the study described being told they will be shot or stabbed or threatened with car bombs due to their work. Some have also been given 48-hour ultimatums to leave the country. Others have been physically attacked and their equipment and cars damaged, or been forced to install bulletproof windows and doors with alarms linked to police stations in their homes.

Research for the report, Occupational hazard? Threats and violence against journalists in Northern Ireland, found there have been more than 70 incidents of threats or attacks on journalists since the beginning of 2019, but most go unpunished. There have not been any prosecutions for threats from paramilitary organisations.

NUJ journalists’ union assistant general secretary Séamus Dooley said the report should be a wake-up call to the police, those involved in the administration of justice, politicians, those who control online platforms, and “all of us who work in the media industry”.