Suzanne Breen, (left) the Northern Ireland editor of the Sunday Tribune, has said that police want to make an example of her by forcing her to hand over source material as a warning to other journalists.Breen is resisting court action to force her to give her mobile phone records, notes and other material arising from her reporting claims by the Real IRA.
Breen, speaking at a rally in London organised by the NUJ last night, described the way she had been treated as "Kafkaesque".
She said if police wanted her mobile phone records they could get them from GCHQ or the phone companies."This is nothing other than harassment".
Breen claimed the police action had a "political dimension" which was to deny the oxygen of publicity to terrorists.
She was adamant that she will not comply if ordered by a judge to hand over source material, saying "My life would be in danger if I did so." Breen said that were she to comply and broke the principle of protecting sources' confidentiality her name "would be mud" and even the police would not speak to her.
She also suggested: "Police are doing this when Irish papers are suffering from the recession and are financially vulnerable."
The judge in the case at Belfast High Court has said he is "minded" to grant the police application and much of the police evidence has been kept secret from Breen and her legal team. The next hearing is on Friday when a date for the full case may be set.
Breen said it was very important to win the case "otherwise they will come for other journalists."
Geoffrey Bindman, the solicitor who represented Bill Goodwin in his sources' case 20 years ago, described the action being taken against Breen as "a gross abuse of the legal process".
Goodwin, also at the rally, spoke about how important it had been for him to get messages of support from other journalists when he was facing jail for refusing to name his sources.
A petition supporting Suzanne Breen has already got 1,500 signatures. You can sign it here.
Pic: Jon Slattery
As a fellow journalist who's been to 40 countries and knows how hard it is to do our job, I'm 100% solidary. We face enough hardship in God forsaken third world countries. We don't need so called Western, civilized democracies to act like goons and criminalize our Constitutionally protected work.
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