NUJ warns against complacency over threats to journalists
The union has warned against a creeping culture of complacency regarding threats to journalists in Northern Ireland.
Ian McGuinness, NUJ Irish organiser, has informed the officers of the union’s Irish Executive Council (IEC) about a death threat against a journalist in Northern Ireland.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) notified the member, but while not confirming its source, is taking it seriously. The IEC’s officers extended solidarity to the member, who is being supported by the union and their employer.
Ian McGuinness said the death threat is part of a pattern of behaviour towards journalists in Northern Ireland, ranging from online abuse, physical threats and intimidation, to death threats. He said:
“Death threats against journalists - issued by shadowy elements of society because they don’t like what those journalists are writing or broadcasting about them - is not normal. It is the very definition of abnormal. We have noted a sharp increase in reported threats and know that many members do not even report threats to the PSNI or their employer. We should never allow threats to become 'normal' and society should not become complacent.
"It is not normal that death threats are made, and our condemnations cannot become normal or ritualised. Behind each press statement there is a journalist who has been threatened with violence or murder, simply for pursuing stories in the public interest, a human being who has received a knock at the door from the PSNI, often late at night or early in the morning, telling them that their life is in danger.”
Seamus Dooley, assistant general secretary, said:
“What the people behind this latest death threat want is to strangle investigative and public interest journalism at its source - the journalist who brings the news to the public. This latest threat, like all such threats, is also a threat to a free and independent media. It is designed to terrorise journalists from covering certain stories. Given that any healthy democracy depends on a free and independent media, it is also a threat to democracy in Northern Ireland and should be of deep concern to all citizens.”