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E-mailAll members of the NUJ in Northern Ireland and farther afield will stand firm with Suzanne Breen if the authorities press ahead with threatened legal action against her for having published interviews with members of "dissident Republican" groups.
The demand that Suzanne hand over notes and records of her interviews runs directly to the most basic concept of journalistic confidentiality. Journalists are not policewomen.
This threat to Suzanne comes
at a time when police in Britain are
demanding that photographers hand
over film of incidents involving members of the police force or of interest to the police. This is an issue which affects journalists everywhere. The NUJ will
not be found wanting in defending
our members, our union code of
conduct and the principles we stand
for.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear
has said in relation to the issue: "The
right of journalists to protect their
sources is a fundamental press freedom and must be respected. If the police and security services believe they can routinely force journalists to become part of intelligence-gathering operations, the very future of independent journalism will be put at risk.
"An investigative journalist's job is
to expose the truth, but they can only
do that if their sources are confident
they can speak openly and in confidence.
"The authorities must recognise the special nature of journalistic material and respect Suzanne Breen's right to keep her sources confidential."
Eamonn McCann,
Bob Miller,
NUJ National Executive members for Northern Ireland
Swine flu complacency
From Maurice Fitzgerald
The poor and unhealthy conditions some animals are in threaten the global population. International air travel makes it possible for a pandemic to occur in days with devastating consequences. Current measures in place are not nearly enough, with too much dithering over what to do, and cynical economic conflicts of interests preventing radical measures. Complacent attitudes towards animal welfare will some day breathe a virus that nobody can stop. We've just been lucky so far, notwithstanding the progress of swine flu killing hundreds.
Maurice Fitzgerald,
Shanbally,
Co Cork
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I wish to support journalist, Suzanne Breen in her fight for journalists .confidentiality. My late father was the great Northern political journalist Tom Samways and if he was alive today he would be up in arms at this attack on the freedom of the press. He wrote articles on many of the different groups in the North from the UVF to the PIRA etc, and only for journalistic confidentiality he would never have gained access to the inner circle of the various paramilitary organizations to give an insight into these groups.
My late sister Rosie McKay was also a journalist in London and I know she too would have been outraged at this disgraceful attack on the Free Press. I abhor the murderous activities of the CIRA, RIRA or any of their lunatic fellow travellers and fully support the peace process in the North, but I totally agree with journalists having the right to meet these people in confidence and report to the public their mindset and reasons why they are committing their dastardly deeds. How can we fully understand and critiscise these groups if we don't know what they are about? I believe in total freedom of speech no matter how abhorent it is and the press must be left with total freedom to meet anyone in confidence without the worry of arrest and imprisonment and report the truth no matter how hard it is to swallow.
My late wife Patricia McKay was killed by the British Army in 1972 and only for the Free Press her murder would never have been exposed and the Propagandists of the NI Office would have got away with the lies they printed about the circumstances of her death.
I urge all free thinking people across the world to raise their voices in anger and protest at this disgraceful attack on the freedom of the press. God Bless you Suzanne keep up the good fight.
Gerry McKay.