A number of Irish journalists have been warned about threats made against them by the Dublin crime gangs involved in the recent deadly violence in the Republic’s capital.
Independent News and Media confirmed that some of their reporters had been informed by the Irish police that their safety was at risk.
The threats emerged after two deaths in less than a week in a vicious feud between two rival gangs, which was sparked by an armed assault on a boxing bout weigh-in at a Dublin hotel last Friday.
A statement released by INM on Thursday evening said: “A number of reporters have been formally notified by the Garda Siochána that their safety is at risk from organised criminals.
“INM is working with gardaí to strengthen security around these journalists and taking every precaution to ensure their safety. The threats are understood to have emanated from criminal gangs in Dublin.
“After consulting with the reporters concerned, INM has decided to make these threats public in order to highlight the danger posed to the media.”
INM’s editor-in-chief, Stephen Rae, said: “This is an outrageous threat to the freedom of the press in Ireland and we are taking the threats with the utmost seriousness. The safety of our journalists is of paramount importance.”
Rae referred to his former colleague Veronica Guerin, who was murdered by a Dublin crime gang in June 1996. The Sunday Independent reporter was targeted after exposing the activities of a number of notorious Irish gangsters.
INM, which owns the Sunday Independent, Irish Independent, Evening Herald and Sunday World newspapers, issued security guidelines on Wednesday to reporting staff and photographers tasked with covering the gang violence. The guidelines include discouraging staff from “door-stepping” the homes of known criminals.
Since Guerin’s murder, police have obtained intelligence about a number of plots to kill other reporters who investigate Dublin’s crime lords.
Séamus Dooley, the National Union of Journalists’ Irish secretary, said the union was gravely concerned by the development.
“Journalists and media organisations will not be intimidated by such threats, which have no place in a democratic society,” Dooley said. “Our immediate thoughts are with those under threat and their families. No journalists should be placed under threat for doing their job.”
On Wednesday, the Guardian revealed that police had advised Dublin city council to warn several residents they were under threat and should leave their homes in a complex of flats in the south inner city.
INM journalists captured many of the startling images of the attack on the Regency hotel during which one man, David Byrne, was shot dead. They included photographs of two men in police Swat-style uniforms carrying AK-47 assault rifles entering the hotel.
They also photographed another man dressed as a woman brandishing a handgun. These images have been handed over to the police investigation into the assault.
On Monday night, a relative of the infamous crime boss Gerry Hutch was shot dead in apparent retaliation for Byrne’s death.
