Protest against criminalisation Saturday 26th January

national | miscellaneous | press release Tuesday January 22, 2008 16:18 by Kevin Murphy - 32 County Sovereignty Movement

The 32 County Sovereignty Movement urge all republicans to support a protest against criminalisation planned for Saturday 26th January at the offices of The Irish News 113-117 Donegal Street Belfast at 3pm.

A dangerous new trend has developed in recent weeks whereby some elements within the media have attempted to criminalise those republicans who have rejected the British administration in Stormont. The Irish News has been particularly active in this new role as MI5 mouthpieces rather than an impartial representative of nationalist opinion. The editorial team in this once credible paper have taken to their new role with great relish to the point of publishing outlandish stories supposedly taken from unnamed and unsubstantiated ‘sources’ and then refusing Irish Republican Separatists any print space in order to counter these ludicrous creations.

The 32 County Sovereignty Movement believe that it is imperative that the actions of The Irish News do not go unchallenged as it is our opinion that such attempts at criminalisation are a pre cursor to a new crackdown on anti agreement republicanism.
This crackdown has been called for by the main nationalist parties through the pages of this paper and this line has been faithfully parroted by Irish News editorials.
As it is clear that no republican in Ireland can receive a fair trial and that the British intelligence services and their agents are up to their necks in attempting to frame republican separatists we would ask the Irish News how exactly republicans should be dealt with?

The Irish News has put itself firmly on the side of the British political administration in Ireland, not alone by attempting to recruit young nationalists in to the British army and police through their situations vacant pages but also by putting themselves and some of their staff at the disposal of the British security services.
The Irish News must be in a position to prove the veracity of their stories and we call on them to do so. We also call on them to cease their practise of adopting a partisan political position in defence of the British administration in Ireland and to give republican separatism a right to reply to criminalisation attempts emanating from MI5.

These are issues which impact upon all republicans not just those within the 32 County Sovereignty Movement as it is not just our organisations that are being criminalised but the whole republican separatist position.

Fight criminalisation
Fight censorship