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Journalist faces jail

Journalist Suzanne Breen faces jail in Northern Ireland for refusing to hand her notes to the police.

The Northern Ireland editor of the Dublin-based Sunday Tribune is resisting an order to surrender confidential sources of information relating to articles about the Real IRA.

More than 1,500 people from as far afield as Canada, Norway and Ukraine have signed a petition in support of Suzanne.

Sunday Tribune editor Noirin Hegarty said: “If you think that press freedom is important and that it matters that journalists can do their jobs without fear or persecution, you need to stand with us. We are the observers and the outsiders and we will be vigorous in our defence of our right to keep our sources confidential. We will be vigorous in our protection of this journalist’s life. To do anything else would not just be a betrayal of Suzanne Breen’s journalistic bravery, but a betrayal of journalism itself.”

Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists raised the case at a conference on freedom expression organised by the Council of Europe, in Iceland.

He said: “Legal intimidation of reporters to reveal their sources threatens the lives of investigative journalists as well as encouraging a culture of secrecy. If she is forced to comply, journalistic scrutiny will be sacrificed, democracy will suffer and she will be put in harm's way. The Council of Europe as a guardian of liberties and rights has a duty to speak out against member states when they compromise media freedom in this way."

Breen is a member of the National Union of Journalists which launched a public campaign in association with the Sunday Tribune in defence of Suzanne Breen’s right to protect her confidential sources of information.

NUJ Irish Secretary Séamus Dooley said: “A professional journalist who compromises that principle loses the right to call himself or herself a journalist and alters forever the relationship of trust with sources and with the reader, viewer or listener.”

Dooley said the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s actions towards Suzanne Breen were heavy handed and clearly designed to intimidate journalists.

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