Irish Journalist Faces Jail for Exposing Coverup

by Alexander Cockburn

One journalist who made spectacular headway in tracing state sponsorship of Finucane's murder was Ed Moloney, currently Northern editor of the Dublin-based Sunday Tribune. Down the years, Moloney, now 50, has built up a fine reputation. He's been Northern Irish editor of the Irish Times and has contributed to the Guardian, BBC, the Washington Post, and other publications.

But because of his work in the aftermath of the Finucane killing, Moloney now faces the possibility of being thrown into prison for defying a court order to hand over working notes to the police. Unless his lawyers get the order thrown out, Moloney could be prosecuted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, a statute rushed through the British Parliament in the mid-1970s, giving the police and courts even vaster summary powers than they normally enjoy. In this event, he'll face a no-jury trial, as the first journalist to be prosecuted in such a way. He could be given an unlimited fine, plus, anywhere from six months to five years in prison. Or he could be convicted of contempt of court, and given an unlimited prison sentence.

Why would the security forces and judicial apparatus of Northern Ireland want to risk international condemnation for their onslaught on a journalist? The reasons are devious, part of a desperate attempt to salvage the reputation of these same security forces, most notably the RUC.

After Finucane's murder in 1989, Moloney conducted a series of lengthy interviews with William Stobie, a quartermaster in the Protestant paramilitary group reportedly responsible for the killing. Stobie told Moloney that he was an agent working for the RUC and had given the RUC advance notice of the operation that ultimately led to the murder of Finucane. As quartermaster, Stobie had provided the killers with their weapons. Stobie volunteered this information to Moloney on condition that it not be published, since its disclosure would endanger his life. He told Moloney he wanted his account on record in case anything happened to him.

The years rolled by, and then, earlier this year, the Finucane case turned red hot. A London group called British-Irish Rights Watch sent a report to the Irish government on the Finucane case. In the file thus submitted was documentary evidence of British Army collusion in the Finucane killing. The report itself has not yet been published, but the Irish government felt sufficiently uneasy about its assertions to call upon Tony Blair's government to open a public inquiry.

The RUC faced an immensely damaging probe at a time when its very future was up for review under the terms of the Good Friday peace agreement. At this point, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, head of the RUC, called in a senior Scotland Yard police officer, John Stevens, and ordered him to track down Finucane's killers. Lo and behold, the first man arrested as a consequence of Stevens' recruitment was William Stobie!

Targeting Stobie was an adroit move. By fingering him for Finucane's murder, the RUC was thus placing the whole Finucane case sub judice. This stopped the campaign for a public inquiry in its tracks, where it will remain for at least a year, until after Stobie's trial. Furthermore, Stobie, a potential key witness against the RUC, is stained with criminal charges. Another plus for the RUC is that the Finucane scandal now cannot figure in the review of the RUC's future that is currently underway.

The second person Stevens moved against was Ed Moloney, who finally wrote up Stobie's story from his old notes, publishing his report in the Sunday Tribune this past June 27, three days after Stobie was charged with murder. It's obvious that Moloney's explosive story infuriated the authorities, who have responded by demanding his notes and threatening him with imprisonment. I talked on the phone to Ed Moloney in Belfast in mid-August, as he awaited a court hearing to try to overturn the court order seeking his notes.

"There are a number of reasons why I can't hand these documents over," he told me. "First and most important, our job as journalists is to report the news and analyze events. It is not to gather evidence for the police or the state. And if the authorities were to win this case, the precedent for all journalists in the UK and in Ireland would be disastrous."

If all the circumstances of Finucane's killing see daylight, the pressure for a full public inquiry will be irresistible. Not only had Stobie reportedly informed the RUC about the planned murder, but a UDA officer advising the gunmen was also working secretly as an intelligence agent of the British Army, a fact that emerged separately, not long after Finucane's murder. Two of the major players in the murder were thus working for two state security agencies.

Furthermore, the stakes are very high, not least for Ed Moloney, who should get all the support we can muster. Make your views clear to Northern Ireland Secretary Marjorie Mowlam, Stormont Castle, Belfast, Northern Ireland.