Journalist need not disclose Real IRA sources

David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent

A newspaper journalist won the right yesterday to withhold information from the police about the Real IRA and its involvement in the murder of two British soldiers.

A judge ruled that the life of Suzanne Breen, northern editor of the Sunday Tribune, which is published in Dublin, would be in danger if she were forced to hand over the information. She had been subject to a legal application by Sir Hugh Orde, Chief Constable of Northern Ireland, who is seeking information about the murders of the two soldiers at the Massereene army base in March.

Ms Breen, who is based in Belfast, received the Real IRA’s claim of responsibility for shooting dead Sapper Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, and Sapper Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, at the gates of the base in Antrim.

Tom Burgess, the Belfast Recorder, said that the journalist’s right to life outweighed the great public interest in catching the murderers. There was objective evidence that the terrorist group would attack Ms Breen if the information were handed to the authorities, even as a result of a court order, he said.

In his ruling Burgess focussed on the potential threat to the journalist's life and that of her family if she had co-operated with the PSNI inquiry into the double murder at Massereene Barracks in March.

He said it would be "close to inconceivable as to how she, and potentially her family, could be protected for what could well be many years to come".
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He said there was a potential threat to the lives of Breen and her family "because the risk is not just real and immediate. It is continuing."

He added: "There is nothing in the public statements of the Police Service of Northern Ireland to contradict the view that the dissident republicans are with us for some time to come."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jun/18/suzanne-breen-ira