THE following statement was issued by the Irish and British newspaper editors whose names appear below:
"Veronica Guerin was murdered for being a journalist. She was a brave and brilliant reporter who was gunned down for being too tenacious in her investigations of organised crime in Ireland. We view this assassination as a fundamental attack on the free press which is essential to the democratic process. Journalists will not be intimidated. We hereby commit our news organisations to continue the investigation of the stories which cost Veronica Guerin her life."
Agreed and signed by:
Ireland:
Aengus Fanning, editor,
The Sunday Independent
Vincent Doyle, editor,
The Irish Independent
Conor Brady, editor,
The Irish Times
Gerry O'Regan, editor,
The Star
Tom Collins, editor,
The Irish News
Brian Looney, editor,
The Examiner
Peter Murtagh, editor,
The Sunday Tribune
Damien Kiberd, editor,
The Sunday Business Post
Colm McGinty, editor,
The Sunday World
Martin Lindsay, editor,
Sunday Life
Joe Mulholland, director of news, RTE
Britain:
Alan Rusbridger, editor,
The Guardian
Peter Stothard, editor,
The Times
Charles Moore, editor,
The Daily Telegraph
Andrew Marr, editor,
The Independent
Paul Dacre, editor,
The Daily Mail
Will Hutton, editor,
The Observer
John Witherow, editor,
The Sunday Times
Peter Wilby, editor,
The Independent on Sunday
The World Association of Newspapers has sent the following message to Independent Newspapers:
"We learned with outrage and great sadness of the news of the horrific and cowardly assassination, of Veronica Guerin.
"Ms Guerin was a courageous, devoted journalist, and was and will remain a symbol of the struggle for press freedom and the rights of journalists to safely and freely practise their profession.
"Please convey our profound condolences to her family and colleagues at Independent Newspapers.
Yours sincerely,
Jayme Sirotsky, President;
Timothy Balding, Director General.
The editor of The Irish Times, Mr Conor Brady, who is chairman of the Paris based World Editors' Forum, representing more than 180 editors around the world, issued the following statement on behalf of the organisation:
"Unhappily, each year brings a toll of death and injury among journalists in the troubled spots of the world. The murder of Veronica Guerin stands out on two counts. First, unlike many other journalists who have died on duty, she was no random victim. She was coldly and calculatingly assassinated. Second, this did not happen in a war zone or in the chaos of some third world country. This assassination took place in a member state of the European Union, indeed in the state which assumes the EU presidency in a few days.
"We extend our sympathy to Ms Guerin's family and colleagues and we utterly condemn this barbaric act. It is an attack on one of the indispensable arms of democracy a free press. We call on the Irish Government to take all the steps that may be necessary to ensure that Veronica Guerin's murderers are brought to justice and that no journalist in Ireland should have to fear such attacks in the future."