On 18th June 1994, in the small village of Loughlinisland, County Down, a bigger crowd than normal had gathered at the normally quiet The Heights Bar, to watch Ireland take on Italy in the World Cup. At around 10pm, two men in boiler suits and balaclavas entered the bar, shouting sectarian slurs and indiscriminately opening fire. It was later discovered that the two men were members of the UVF, a loyalist paramilitary group. The shooting was believed to be part of a series of attacks in retaliation for the IRA’s murder of three UVF members, which occurred in Belfast two days prior. Leaders of the UVF had urged members to “kill every Catholic” in response.

Six civilians were killed in The Heights Bar, with a further five injured. This attack later became known as the Loughlinisland Massacre and was widely reported across the world, with messages of sympathy coming from President Bill Clinton, Pope John Paul II and the Queen. It led to a brief resurgence in tit-for-tat paramilitary violence towards the end of The Troubles, with collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the police long suspected. This was confirmed in 2016 by a report from then Police Ombudsman, Michael Maguire, who found that collusion was a significant feature in the murders.

Twenty-five years on, no suspects have been arrested for this barbaric attack. While the police were colluding with the perpetrators, they were equally consoling victims’ families that there would be “no stone unturned” in their investigation. The only arrests to occur to date with any sort of relation to the events at The Heights Bar in 1994 have been the arrests of two journalists in August 2018 for their research as part of a documentary on the massacre, ironically named after the consoling mantra from police at the time.

Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney were arrested for supposedly breaching the Official Secrets Act (1989) for the documents they used in research for ‘No Stone Unturned‘. The men have both repeatedly noted that the documents used were leaked anonymously, and criticise the police for their labelling of it as theft. For journalists, the protection of sources is key. Protecting whistle-blowers is imperative to producing investigative journalism of a high calibre. They had also sent letters prior to the documentary being made to the suspects named in it – whose names were already in the public domain – but received no reply. The journalists were aware of the gravity of this case and made sure to be explicit in reaching out for permissions to continue in making the documentary.

As of this week, the PSNI have admitted that they “made a huge error” in raiding the homes of McCaffrey and Birney, as well as their offices at Fine Point Films during their arrest in August last year. It was also found that the men had been closely following the journalistic guidelines set out by the National Union of Journalists. The results of the judicial review into the case are welcome news, as they set out that McCaffrey and Birney had their premises unlawfully searched. It shows, as Barry McDonald QC told the court in Belfast on 28th May, that the PSNI were operating like the authorities of a police state, as opposed to those entrusted to uphold the laws of a liberal democracy.

McCaffrey and Birney found support throughout their case from an unlikely person – former Brexit secretary David Davis MP. After the judicial review hearing on Tuesday, Davis stated the implications this case has for freedom of the press across the UK. He highlighted that press freedom is one of the most important freedoms we have in a liberal democracy, as it enables us to shed light on injustices in society to make them right. In short, “it protects all the other freedoms.”

McCaffrey and Birney were supported by Amnesty International, the National Union of Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders, to name but a few. All of these organisations work tirelessly to defend press freedom in Northern Ireland, the UK, and around the world. The police have since halted their investigation into the journalists, with all materials taken during the police raids being returned.

This is a clear victory for press freedom in Northern Ireland. However, it simply shows what we knew to be true all along: McCaffrey and Birney did nothing wrong in their research. It leaves a lot of questions for the police, relating to Loughlinisland and other historical incidents. Just how much collusion occurred during The Troubles? If they tried so hard to silence these journalists, how many more times could this happen? How can journalists remain silent if Northern Ireland is to continue functioning as a democracy?

When those who are investigating injustices end up being those who are arrested as opposed to the suspects, we should all be concerned. When two Northern Irish journalists experience unlawful police raids on their homes and offices, arrested as their families watch on, just for pursuing the truth – we should be worried. We should be angry, as these injustices are occurring here on our doorstep. We should be talking about this grave injustice, and should be protesting for its end.

A place with a history as turbulent as Northern Ireland needs press freedom, as we need these evils of the past to be exposed and brought to light so that they will never be able to repeat themselves. We need to protect press freedom to protect our rights as citizens – and that means we must send a message that our rights can never be infringed.