Sir, - While I fully share many of the sentiments expressed by Veronica Guerin's brother, Jimmy, in your Letters Page of July 27, and join with him in fervently hoping that no journalist will ever again lose his or her life in pursuit of a story, there are a number of points which I feel should be made.
Campaigning journalists of Veronica Guerin's calibre are a rare breed. They investigate organised en me, they work in dangerous war zones, they report on the activities of repressive and dictatorial regimes all over the world. They do so because, as Veronica's editor, Aengus Fanning, said on RTE Radio's "This Week On Sunday, they are imbued with a vocational zeal far above the ordinary.
Their work is dangerous. They do it voluntarily. No editor can force campaigning journalists of this stature to do something they don't want to do. Equally, no editor can ensure a totally risk free environment.
If campaigning journalism were to stop because of threats, intimidation, or risk, it would be the end of a free press as we know it and it would only be a matter of time before democracies all over the world would become no different in this respect from the Iron Curtain countries in the darkest days of Communism.
I know that Veronica's editors often discussed her safety with her, as did her family. One of her editors, Anne Harris, urged her several times to move out of crime investigation into the political team. It was Veronica's choice to investigate organised crime and to work alone.
After the shooting incident at her home early last year, she was under 24 hour garda protection for a time, but for obvious reasons she found it impossible to carry on her work under such circumstances, and requested that the protection should be lifted.
I agree with Aengus Fanning that Veronica would not have accepted restrictions placed on her where she felt they would prevents her from pursuing her investigative vocation successfully. Nor would she have accepted an order to stop her work.
The entire country is devastated by Veronica's murder, nobody more so than her family. We in Independent Newspapers share that pain and grief.
It is obvious that hindsight provides perfect vision and that, notwithstanding threats and intimidation, nobody could have known that this awful and outrageous murder would happen. But if editors and journalists are to give in to intimidation, freedom of speech will be the very first casualty.
Some of the questions raised by Jimmy Guerin's letter have been the subject of intense discussion by journalists for many years. I believe that each case should be examined on its merits, and that all practicable precautions should be taken. I also believe that journalists working in dangerous areas should do so entirely of their own free will.
Having said that, it is patently clear that no editor or newspaper anywhere in the world can provide campaigning journalists with an absolute guarantee of safety. Such journalists are, indeed, a rare breed. Veroncia was the bravest journalist I have ever met. I join with Jimmy Guerin in the hope that no journalist ever again loses his or her life in pursuit of a story.
June 26th, 1996, was a dark day for democracy. - Yours, etc.,
Managing Director,
Independent Newspapers
(Ireland) Limited, Independent House, 90 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1.