Rt Hon Dr John Reid MP
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland Office
London
UK

Fax: (+ 44207) 210 0249

Vienna, 1 October 2001

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, strongly condemns 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 30-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.

IPI urges Your Excellency to bring to justice those responsible for this heinous act. We further urge you do everything in your power to ensure the safety of journalists covering events in Northern Ireland.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director