Reid pays tribute to murdered journalist

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid has paid tribute to murdered investigative journalist Martin O'Hagan.

In a speech to the Society of Editors conference in Belfast, he said O'Hagan's killers were cowards.

Dr Reid paid tribute to the Sunday World reporter, who was the first Northern Ireland journalist to be killed in 32 years of paramilitary violence.

He said of Northern Ireland's reporters: "They want peace, they want fairness and equality, they want a lasting settlement and they are prepared to use their influence to achieve it."

He went on: "One man exemplifies the power of the press."

"Martin O'Hagan's investigations struck such a fear into the criminal underbelly of Northern Ireland, those cowards felt they had to silence him," he added.

He says he is determined the journalist's work will live on, and that the Government will be tireless in its pursuit of "gangsters and terrorists".

Mr O'Hagan was gunned down near his home in Lurgan, Co Armagh, as he returned from a night out with his wife Marie.

His murder was blamed on the dissident Loyalist Volunteer Force, as he had exposed its criminal activities.