Journalist highlights Army 'accounts'

Thirteen civilians were killed on Bloody Sunday

Journalists probing Army shooting incidents after Bloody Sunday were nearly always told that gunmen had targeted soldiers first, the inquiry into the shootings has heard.

The Saville Inquiry is examining the events of 30 January 1972 when 13 civilians were shot dead by British army soldiers during a civil rights march in the city. A 14th person died later.

Simon Hoggart, a reporter with the Guardian newspaper based in Northern Ireland at the time, told the Saville Inquiry military bosses were not prepared to have their version challenged.

He said: "After Bloody Sunday, the press office would almost always give the same explanation after every shooting incident, ie, that the soldiers involved had been shot at or had seen a gunman.

Lord Saville: Began work on inquiry nearly four years ago

"When this explanation was questioned by journalists and not always published as accepted truth, they frequently objected." Mr Hoggart told the tribunal he had not been in Londonderry on 30 January 1972.

But in the wake of a civil rights demonstration at Magilligan internment camp the weekend before Bloody Sunday where marchers were batoned by Paratroopers, an article written by him and containing scathing criticisms of the unit was printed.

Headlined "The Brutal Soldiery", Mr Hoggart's piece claimed other soldiers had urged brigade headquarters to keep the Parachute Regiment out of their areas.

He quoted one captain saying: "They are frankly disliked by many officers here who regard some of their men as little better than thugs in uniform."

Mr Hoggart, now a top columnist with the Guardian, said his story had been dismissed by colleagues at the time.

"Before Bloody Sunday, fellow journalists had been sceptical of the views expressed in my `Brutal Soldiery' article," he said. "Bloody Sunday removed that scepticism."

Mr Hoggart was also critical of an internal Army memo which accused him of "fishing for" information from the press office for his article on the Paratroopers.

'Suspicious'

"Fished for makes it imply I was in some way deviously trying to get information behind that press officer's back, which is absurd," he said.

Military chiefs were deeply suspicious of some reporters' motives, he added.

"My understanding at that time was that the Army believed that British journalists were in some way against them."

Lord Saville and the commonwealth judges who comprise the inquiry began their work nearly four years ago.

They are not expected to report back until 2004.

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry was established in 1998 by Prime Minister Tony Blair after a campaign by families of those killed and injured.

They felt that the Widgery Inquiry, held shortly after the shootings, did not find out the truth about what happened on Bloody Sunday.