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Alert

Journalist killed

(IPI/IFEX) - In a 1 October 2001 letter to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland John Reid, IPI strongly condemned the killing of a prominent investigative journalist in Northern Ireland.


Martin O'Hagan, who worked in Northern Ireland for the Dublin-based "Sunday World", was shot dead in the town of Lurgan, County Armagh, on 28 September, in a drive-by attack as he walked home from a pub with his wife, Marie. Witnesses said O'Hagan died on the spot after a gunman fired six shots from a passing car.

According to the information before IPI, the Red Hand Defenders, a Protestant paramilitary group, said O'Hagan had been killed "for crimes against the loyalist people," although officials say he was probably shot because of his investigations into the drug-dealing activities of the splinter loyalist group, the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). The Red Hand Defenders is a cover name frequently used by two outlawed terrorist groups, the Ulster Defence Association and the LVF, both of which are officially observing ceasefires.

O'Hagan was the first journalist to draw attention to the activities of LVF founder Billy Wright, who allegedly attempted to have the journalist assassinated in 1992. He had received many death threats because of his exposés of activities by both pro-British and pro-Irish paramilitaries, as well as drug barons, and was the first working journalist to be killed in the thirty-year history of Northern Ireland's troubles. Another prominent investigative journalist, Veronica Guerin, who covered organised crime for the Dublin-based "Sunday Independent", was gunned down by drug dealers in a drive-by murder outside Dublin on 26 June 1996 (see IFEX alert of 26 June 1996).

Recommended Action

Send appeals to the secretary of state for Northern Ireland:
- urging him to bring to justice those responsible for this heinous act
- further urging him do everything in his power to ensure the safety of journalists covering events in Northern Ireland

Appeals To

Rt Hon Dr John Reid MP
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland Office
London, UK
Fax: +44 207 210 0249

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.