Adams' 'editor at gunpoint' remarks ill-judged and inappropriate - NUJ

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has condemned the controversial 'editor at gunpoint' comments that Gerry Adams made at a $500-a-plate New York dinner.

Seamus Dooley, Irish secretary of the union, said several journalists had complained and found his language sinister and intimidating.

In a letter to the party leader, Mr Dooley said he welcomed a clarification that the Michael Collins reference was intended as a joke rather than a threat.

However he added: "I found the comment ill judged and inappropriate in the context of the daily threats of violence against journalists across the globe, the number of journalists killed annually and the climate of fear in which so many colleagues work."

An audio clip of the controversial comments emerged online as the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) criticised the remarks and urged him to promptly withdraw them.

The Sinn Fein leader's comments have also been condemned by the newspaper organisation National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI).

Mr Dooley warned Mr Adams that he need only speak to his colleague, former Lord Mayor of Belfast Mairtin O Muilleoir, to confirm that in Northern Ireland threats against journalists are a contemporary reality rather than an historic footprint.

He said the NUJ also treats Sinn Fein part of the democratic process, and expects the party to engage with its members in the same fashion.

“In this regard I wish to record my concern at the tone and content of comments made by senior party officials on social media disturbing,” Mr Dooley continued in his letter, dated November 12th.

“Robust exchanges are part and parcel of political discourse but some of the comments made have not only been personalised, but offensive.

“I believe it would be possible for official Sinn Fein spokespersons to robustly defend the party and you, as leader, without resorting to insults and highly personalised attacks on individual journalists,” he added.

WAN-IFRA President Tomas Brunegard, has already written to Mr Adams, telling him his comments were not acceptable.

He noted that Mr Adams "joked about holding editors at gunpoint and criticised journalists who had sought to expose the involvement of Provisional IRA members in the cover up of a rape".

However Mr Brunegard said that Mr Adams's comments in relation to Independent Newspapers & Media (INM) was at best insensitive given that two INM journalists have been murdered in the past 20 years.

Online Editors