Newspaper Says It Knows Who Killed Reporter p.16

By: Alan Harman

THE IRISH INDEPENDENT newspaper says it knows who ordered the murder of award-winning investigative journalist Vernoica Guerin, 35, and says he's untouchable.
Guerin was killed by five bullets as she sat in her car at a traffic light. Two men on a motorcycle drove alongside her car and the pillion rider opened fire.
"We in this newspaper know who was responsible for the attacks on our colleague," the daily newspaper said
in a front-page article. "The same person is closely linked to the criminal who we believe masterminded her murder. They are free. We are gagged by outmoded (libel) laws."
Guerin specialized in writing about the crime barons in Ireland for the Sunday Independent. She had been shot in the leg last year and had shots fired at her home but had refused protection saying it would inhibit her work.
The daily Independent says police believe the "hit" was ordered by a major criminal figure known to be making huge profits from trafficking in ecstasy and cannabis.
Guerin was working on a series of profiles of drug lords when she was murdered.
The daily Independent said she had been receiving threatening and intimidating telephone calls by a criminal associate of the prime suspect.
There now have been 12 unsolved contract killings in Dublin since August 1994, but the coldblooded murder of the journalist has left Ireland stunned.
In the Irish parliament, Prime Minister John Bruton called the murder "sinister in the extreme."
Opposition leader Bertie Ahern said no effort should be spared in tracking down her killers and those who ordered the murder.
"Her murder represents a direct attack on our democracy and the right to freedom of speech," he said.
Independent Newspapers chairman Tony O'Reilly also said the murder was a direct attack on democracy.
"The people who assassinated Veronica are trying to murder the freedom to investigate and report the truth about our society," he said in a statement.
Among her awards was one received in New York from the Committee to Protect Journalists for "her fearless exposure of the Dublin criminal underworld."
A reward of more than $150,000 was offered by the Sunday Independent for information leading to the arrest of the killers.
The editors of 19 newspapers in Britain and Ireland signed a statement saying they viewed the murder as a fundamental attack on the free press which they said was essential to the democratic process.
"We hereby commit our news organizations to continue the investigation of the stories which cost Veronica Guerin her life," the statement said.
Sunday Independent editor Aengus Fanning said the murder was Irish journalism's darkest day, but would not intimidate its reporters.
"Veronica's death will reinvigorate and reinspire Irish journalists," he said.