Northern Ireland journalists are working in a climate of intimidation

Journalists are working under a climate of threats and intimidation. Allison Morris of the Irish News had to be escorted from court by security guards. She received serious abuse from a gang of protesters when she was called a "Fenian bastard" and a "Fenian cunt". The demonstrators also threatened to cut her throat. The Guardian reported here. The National Union of Journalists reported here. NUJ president Barry McCall said:

"The media must be free to report on the courts without fear of violence or intimidation. Any attempt to undermine that right is an attempt to undermine the principles which underpin the judicial system."

On St Patrick’s Day 2014 a freelance photographer was assaulted on leaving a function at Belfast City Hall hosted by the Lord Mayor. They gang told him they knew which gym he went to and accused him of working for Sinn Féin, of being a dissident and subjected him to sectarian abuse. In June 2013 the PSNI informed a journalist that dissident republicans had issued a death threat against them.

Lord Lexden - Libel veto a "story of evasion and irresponsible delay"

Tory peer Lord Lexden has criticised the Northern Ireland Executive for its failure to implement libel law, calling events a "story of evasion and irresponsible delay". Lord Lexden said that the Defamation Act 2013 represented a "liberalising, modernising law, which will confer lasting benefits throughout society."

He told a committee stage debate on the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill it was "wholly unjustifiable that the people of Northern Ireland should be excluded from the benefits and protections" of this law. He said that the province's exclusion from the Defamation Act 2013 put thousands of publishing jobs at risk and warned that a "dual system" of defamation law would create "doubt and confusion" in an area where clarity was essential. The committee stage was completed.

Read in full here.