Mr Gerry Adams

World Association of Newspapers

and News Publishers

President
Sinn Fin
44 Parnell Square
Dublin 1
Ireland

WAN-IFRA defends and promotes press

freedom, and helps independent news
publishing companies to succeed in their
transformation process, increase their
business, and perform their crucial role in
open societies.
A worldwide knowledge organisation
representing 18,000 publications and over
3,000 companies in more than 120
countries, WAN-IFRA provides the industry
with strategic insights, brings innovators
together, and helps improve the way news
content and advertising are created,
distributed and consumed

www.wan-ifra.org
96 bis rue Beaubourg
75003 Paris, France
Phone +33 1 474 285 00
Fax +33 1 427 892 33

Rotfeder-Ring 11
60327 Frankfurt
Germany
Tel: 49.69.2400630

Chief Executive Officer

Vincent PEYREGNE
Direct: +33 1 474 285 01
Direct: +49 6151 733 790
vincent.peyregne@wan-ifra.org

PRESIDENCY
President
Tomas BRUNEGARD
Stampen AB
Gothenburg, Sweden
Treasurer
Tore STANGEBYE
Berner Gruppen AS
Oslo, Norway
World Editors Forum President
Erik BJERAGER
Kristeligt Dagblad
Copenhagen, Denmark

ADVISORY COUNCIL
Dipankar Das PURKAYASTHA
ABP Pvt Ltd
Calcutta, India

Fax: (353) 1 8733441

gerry.adams@oir.ie

11 November 2014
Dear Mr Adams,
We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers
(WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum (WEF), which represent 18,000 publications,
15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries, to express
our serious concern at your comments making light of violence against journalists.
According to reports, at a fundraising dinner in New York last week, you joked about
holding editors at gunpoint and criticised journalists who have sought to expose the
involvement of Provisional IRA members in the cover up of a rape.
Referring to how Michael Collins dealt with a critical press, you said: He went in, sent
volunteers in, to the offices, held the editor at gun point and destroyed the entire printing
press. Thats what he did. Now I can just see the headline in the Independent tomorrow,
Im obviously not advocating that. You repeated the remark in a blogpost on 7
November but omitted the final qualification.
We are seriously concerned that this remark may be viewed as a veiled threat against
Independent News & Media journalists and editors, whom you have criticised for
investigating the Mairia Cahill rape scandal. At best, it is highly insensitive. Two
Independent News & Media journalists have been murdered in the past 20 years:
Veronica Guerin was shot dead in Dublin because of her reporting on criminal
operations in 1996; and Martin O'Hagan was murdered in Northern Ireland by the
Loyalist Volunteer Force in 2001.

We respectfully remind you that even a facetious reference to attacking journalists is

entirely inappropriate. So far this year, 42 journalists have been killed while carrying out
their profession. The global campaign against impunity for those who attack journalists
and others for exercising their right to freedom of expression is marked by the UNdesignated International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on 2
November, only a matter of days before you made your remarks.
We respectfully call on you to retract these comments and to publicly affirm your
abhorrence of all forms of violence against journalists.
We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Tomas Brunegrd
President
World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

Erik Bjerager
President
World Editors Forum

WAN-IFRA is the global organization for the worlds newspapers and news publishers,
with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of
Europe. The organization groups 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over
3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.