Calls made for inquiry into Sunday World journalist's murder as killers walk the streets

Sunday World

a day ago

Despite the Sunday World repeatedly identifying the people behind the killing, no one has been brought before the courts.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International UK's Northern Ireland director, Kathryn Torney freelance journalist and co-author and Seamus Dooley, the Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). Liam McBurney/PA Wire
Amnesty International and the National Union of Journalists have repeated calls for a public inquiry into the murder of Sunday World journalist Martin O'Hagan.
No one has ever been charged with Martin's killing 24 years ago, despite repeated government pledges his killers still walk the streets.
This week NUJ General Secretary Seamus Dooley said the failure to prosecute Martin's murder is a 'stain on the history of policing in Northern Ireland.'
He was speaking at the launch of an Amnesty International report into threats against journalists working in Northern Ireland.
Branding this place as the most dangerous place in the UK to work as a journalist the human rights organisation has called for a range of measures to better protect members of the press who are routinely threatened in the course of their work.
The report – Occupational Hazard? – has been dedicated to Martin, murdered by the LVF in September 2001, and Lyra McKee shot and killed during dissident street violence in Derry in April 2019.
Lyra McKee
Seamus Dooley said an external and independent inquiry was the least Martin's family and colleagues deserve.
'I welcome the very strong focus in this report on the unresolved murder of my NUJ colleague Martin O'Hagan,' he said.
The Police Ombudsman is currently compiling a report into the investigation on Martin's death which is due to be published later this year.
'The fact that no one has faced justice for his murder remains a stain on the history of policing in Northern Ireland.
'We urgently need to see the report of the Police Ombudsman and that publication should clear the way for an independent, external investigation into his killing and the circumstances surrounding his murder. '
Martin was shot dead as he walked home with his wife Marie after a night out in Lurgan. Shielding his wife he as struck several times in the drive by shooting and died at the scene yards from his house.
The then Secretary of State John Reid pledged to staff in the Sunday World office that ``no stone would be left unturned'' in the pursuit of Martin's killers.
Despite the Sunday World repeatedly identifying the people behind the killing of the first journalist murdered in the conflict, no one has been brought before the courts.
Martin O'Hagan. Photo: PACEMAKER
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'We will never allow the murder of Martin O'Hagan to become another forgotten file. The fact that no one has been successfully prosecuted sends a signal to those who seek to intimidate and threaten the media, that in Northern Ireland journalists are fair game, that this is a place where you can get away with murder.'
In the report Martin's family have repeated their calls for an independent inquiry.
Solicitor Niall Murphy who attended the report's launch on Tuesday said at least two people involved in Martin's death were security force agents.
'The abject failure to conduct house searches, seize exhibits like clothing, gloves and God knows what else means that there was no evidence for a charge. When the police don't look for evidence then there is no evidence. This was clearly a flawed investigation.'
The report exposes a series of flaws and broken promises in relation to Martin's murder.
Former editor Jim McDowell said the failure to secure justice will not deter the Sunday World from campaigning for Martin.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International UK's Northern Ireland director, Kathryn Torney freelance journalist and co-author and Seamus Dooley, the Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). Liam McBurney/PA Wire
'Martin's murder just cemented what we were at. We are gong to keep doing the job that Martin was doing and the rest of us were doing,' he said.
'That meant that other Sunday World journalists got threats. Nobody will ever stop journalists doing their job.'
Over the course of a year Amnesty interviewed 22 journalists who have come under varying degrees of threat.
From threatened rapes, assault, bomb and gun attacks, Amnesty has revealed there have been more than 70 threats against journalists since 2019 – the figure does not include unreported threats.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty's Northern Ireland Director said the research revealed how journalists are exposed to threat.
'Journalists in Northern Ireland are facing a sustained campaign of threats, intimidation and violence from armed groups, which makes it the most dangerous place in the UK to be a reporter,' he said.
'They are being threatened, attacked and even killed for shining a light on paramilitary groups and others who seek to exert control through violence. This creates a climate of fear that many assumed was consigned to history when the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
'Yet there has not been a single prosecution for threats against journalists from paramilitary groups.'