A Belfast Telegraph journalist has told a Westminster committee looking into press freedom in Northern Ireland that she has received “eight or nine” threats from paramilitaries and organised crime gangs.
Our crime correspondent Allison Morris appeared before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (NIAC) on Wednesday, which is investigating press freedom in Northern Ireland.
The NIAC announced the Inquiry into Press Freedoms and Safety in Northern Ireland after it emerged police have been spying on journalists.
The inquiry launched on Wednesday and the committee heard evidence from journalists and legal experts.
The session looked at police surveillance of the media, the safety of journalists and press freedoms in NI.
The Committee also looked at concerns around threats made to journalists from paramilitary organisations and heard from Ms Morris.
Speaking before the committee, Ms Morris said that receiving threats is “very common,” revealing that she faces online threats on a daily basis.
Ms Morris added that as well as regular online threats, in the last year she has also be the target of a number of threats to life.
“When we talk about TM1s, which are actually threats from paramilitary groups or organised crime gangs, in the last 12 months I think I have had eight or nine,” she explained.
“That has included on occasions, police at my door at half two in the morning searching for bombs under my car. There was actually a device exploded in my street.
“I have been told I was going to be shot by dissident republicans on my way into work and given very specific details as to where I was going to be targeted.”
She added: “I’ve had threats from loyalist paramilitary groups and from well armed organised crime gang which has been responsible for three murders.”
Ms Morris added that this something that you have to find “a way to live with it”.
“I try in my head and rationalise it, that I get to go home to my heavily fortified house,” she explained, adding that often the people she speaks to can’t do the same.
Speaking about the abuse she receives online, Ms Morris said that it is heavily gendered and often has misogynistic undertones.
“A lot of the abuse that journalists get is universal across the board, but the abuse I get compared to my male colleagues is very gendered,” she said.
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Among the witnesses on the first panel were investigative journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney.
In December last year the Investigatory Powers Tribunal found that they had been put under unlawful surveillance by the PSNI and the Metropolitan Police.The second panel also included senior legal expert, Paul Tweed and journalist and author Malachi O’Doherty and MPs discussed the use of SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), defamation law, and how the threat of legal action impacts the media.
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News Catch Up – Wednesday 5 February