Journalists to protect Bloody Sunday sources
Two journalists are expected to defend robustly their right to protect their sources when they return to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry on Monday.
Alex Thomson and Lena Ferguson, who interviewed five soldiers for a series of controversial reports for Channel Four News in 1997 and 1998, risked jail after refusing to reveal the identity of their confidential sources when giving evidence in May 2002.
They were placed in contempt by Inquiry chairman Lord Saville after defying an order to hand over their interview notes.
It is believed they will be ordered again to produce these notes when they appear at the Guildhall, where the Inquiry is taking place.
ITN sources said: “If they are asked again to reveal their sources, both Alex and Lena will certainly stick by their position that they won’t do this.”
The television reports, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the events in Derry on January 30, 1972, when 13 unarmed civilians were killed by members of the Parachute Regiment, included claims that some of the dead and injured had been struck by bullets fired from the city’s walls.
Mr Thomson, chief correspondent of Channel Four News, and Ms Ferguson, his former producer, have argued that to hand over their notes to the Inquiry would breach their journalistic integrity.
They agreed to go back to their sources and ask for permission to reveal their names. Three of the soldiers agreed, while two remain adamant that their anonymity must be protected.
When pressed by Lord Saville in May 2002 to reveal her sources, Ms Ferguson, who is now head of political programmes for BBC Northern Ireland, said: “I made an agreement to those soldiers that I would not reveal their identity and I do not want to be persuaded to change that agreement I had with them.”
She also argued that to reveal the identities would “seriously inhibit my ability to continue working in Northern Ireland and I believe it could have serious ramifications for my personal safety”.
Mr Thomson told Lord Saville: “There is a clear principle which needs defending there, a principle which extends not just to Channel Four News but to investigative journalism and its future as a whole and if that principle needs to be defended by ultimately serving a prison sentence or whatever is required, then that is going to have to be done.”
The contempt issue also extends to ITN, which has refused to hand over taped material that might help identify the sources.
Despite repeated requests from ITN and the two journalists, the Inquiry has not yet said whether it intends to proceed with a court action for contempt. This would be a criminal trial and could carry a prison term if the defendants are found guilty.
Lord Saville did not accept the argument from ITN and the two journalists, and placed them in contempt.
He said on May 2 2002: “All these soldiers have given accounts which it is vital for the Inquiry to investigate fully, but which it cannot do without knowing the identity of the soldiers in question.”
He found it “difficult to accept that an order that the soldiers in question be identified to the Inquiry will have the devastating effect on future disclosure of public or private wrong-doing”.
Counsel to the Inquiry Christopher Clarke QC argued that without possession of all the footage and notes held by Channel Four News, it would be impossible to obtain a full picture of the soldiers’ evidence.
Mr Clarke said the evidence the soldiers could give was “of such predominating importance as to make it necessary in the interests of justice that ITN reveal to the Inquiry who they are”.
