An inquest into the killing of the Sunday World journalist Martin O'Hagan has heard that he was shot for exposing the drug-dealing activities of a loyalist gang.
The 51-year-old reporter was shot three times as he walked home from a local pub with his wife, Marie, in Lurgan, Co Armagh, five years ago.
So far, no one has been charged in connection with the killing, although a senior PSNI officer told the inquest that he was satisfied that eight people interviewed following the murder were responsible.
Coroner John Leckey said the bravery of journalists seeking to expose criminals must be recognised.
He said he was satisfied with the theory that the murder of Mr O'Hagan was related to his investigation of drug-dealing by loyalists in the Mid-Ulster area.
Branding the LVF a 'sinister organisation', he said a number of newsagents in the area, fearful for their own safety, had stopped selling the Sunday paper after being threatened.
Mr Leckey said there were 'widespread threats' not only against journalists like Mr O'Hagan, but also against 'those who distributed the newspaper which contained his articles'.
He noted Mr O'Hagan was the first journalist to be murdered in such circumstances in Northern Ireland, but he said it was something which happened worldwide and pointed to the recent murder of Russian investigative reporter, Anna Politkovskaya.
He said Mr O'Hagan and others were 'bravely seeking to expose criminals and sometimes with dreadful prices paid'.
Case to be internally reviewed
Mr O'Hagan's wife, Marie, said she and her husband were walking home through Lurgan on the night in question when she noticed a car slowing beside them.
She said her husband had pushed her into a hedge before she heard a number of shots.
Mrs O'Hagan said she ran to her home nearby and got one of her children to ring an ambulance and then returned to her husband.
Mr O'Hagan was pronounced dead by an ambulance crew which arrived at the scene.
PSNI Detective Chief Inspector Charles Patterson told the inquest that Mr O'Hagan's killers walked the streets freely despite him being certain who was responsible.
He said eight men had been arrested and questioned in the weeks after the murder were associated with the LVF in the Lurgan area.
Mr Patterson insisted that despite 'extensive investigations' he did not have the evidence to proceed against them.
The coroner appealed for anyone with information on the murder to come forward and Mr Patterson said he was prepared to take any information, however trivial it might be.
He said the inquiry into the murder remained alive but admitted it was not actively being worked on.
However, he said the case would be internally reviewed by the PSNI in the New Year and the O'Hagan family would be informed.
The unsolved case has not been passed to the Historic Enquiries Team, set up to re-examine hundreds of unsolved murders in Northern Ireland, because the team's terms of reference limited it to covering murders from 1968 to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
