Real IRA would kill me for revealing sources, journalist tells court
Suzanne Breen reveals warning from Real IRA at court hearing over police application for interview material
A Northern Ireland journalist under police pressure to reveal information about the Real IRA said today the dissident group was prepared to kill her if she co-operated.
Suzanne Breen told the high court in Belfast the Real IRA was “more than capable” of murdering her and her family.
The Sunday Tribune correspondent said she had received a warning about the price she would pay for passing on information. A contact connected to the Real IRA had told her: “You know what co-operation with the PSNI means.” This message, she said, could only represent a death threat to her and her family.
She said she was not prepared “to place my life at risk and that of my 14-month-old child and my partner”.
Breen received the Real IRA’s claim of responsibility for the killing of two British soldiers outside Massereene barracks in Antrim in March. She later interviewed a representative of the group.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland has said it needs to see her notes as part of its inquiry into the double murder. Last month a judge said he was “minded” to grant the PSNI application to force her to hand over the material.
Breen’s legal team told the court her right to life under the European convention on human rights had to be respected.
The journalist said she had not asked for police help in securing her home because she had not co-operated and would co-operate with the investigation. Asked whether she was prepared to go into a witness-style protection scheme, she said: “Northern Ireland is a small place and republican organisations can find out information about anyone.”
Breen said she believed that the PSNI had increased the potential threat to her by publicly pursuing the case.She was supported in court today by, among others, the BBC Panorama reporter John Ware and the Channel 4 News correspondent Alex Thompson.
