Journalist beaten up in Belfast

One of the North’s top investigative journalists was beaten up in the centre of Belfast today.

Jim McDowell, 60, northern editor of the Dublin-based Sunday World newspaper, was kicked and punched by four men just yards from City Hall.

He was injured in the head, arms, and legs.

The attack happened less than a fortnight after his car was smashed up outside a court in Craigavon, Co Armagh as he attended a hearing involving a number of men charged in connection with the murder of one of his reporters, Martin O’Hagan, who was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries in Lurgan, Co Armagh in September 2001.

McDowell had been visiting Belfast’s Christmas market in the grounds of City Hall when he was knocked to the ground. Earlier he attended a special reception for James Kelly, a columnist with the Irish News newspaper.

He has been threatened several times before by loyalists and republicans and tonight blamed drugs dealers for the attack. He was badly hurt.

McDowell said: “What does it say about the freedom of expression and the freedom of the Press?”