Northern Ireland: CFWIJ stands in solidarity with Allison Morris and Aoife Grace Moore for their legal action against Eoghan Harris

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May 13, 2021- Belfast Telegraph crime reporter Alison Morris and Irish Examiner political correspondent, Aoife Grace Moore have initiated legal action against the former Sunday Independent columnist and ex-senator, Eoghan Harris. The journalist filed for legal action after Mr. Harris revealed himself as one of the operators behind running an anonymous abusive account, “Barbara Pym”. Eoghan admitted last week that he was contributing to the anonymous account which was found to be posting strident and abusive content about the two women journalists. Twitter has suspended the “Barbara Pym” account permanently as well as nine other accounts with linkage to it. Phoenix Law, a law firm based in Belfast is proceeding the legal action on behalf of Aoife Grace Moore and Allison Morris. CFWIJ offers support to both women journalists and stands in solidarity with them. We believe no journalist should ever be subjected to online harassment and threats. Our online spaces need to be safer and free of toxicity. We hope that the legal action would set a precedent against those keyboard warriors who hide behind anonymity.

Aoife shared in her statement with the law firm that for over a year these obsessive attacks on her have sought to damage her reputation as a journalist among peers and colleagues. She said that these posts tagged other journalists and politicians, spreading dangerous lies about her while she carried out her work professionally and diligently. These statements attempted to use her background and hometown against her in a misguided attempt to belittle her work and to promote a false narrative. The law firm also stated in their statement in regards to Aoife Grace Moore that the tweets sought to attack our client’s reputation and undermine her professionalism and integrity. It said that some of the tweets directed at the journalist sought to belittle her views and undermine her professionalism through the use of misogynistic language.

The political correspondent for The Examine shared on her Twitter, “This account sent me sexualized messages about whether Mary Lou McDonald turned me on the size of my arse and called me a terrorist from the month I started at The Examiner.”

Belfast Telegraph crime reporter, Allsion Morris also initiated the legal action against Eoghan Harris through Phenix Law firm separately. The journalist shared in her statement that, “The sustained and obsessive attacks on myself by these accounts occurred at a time and in a manner that was clearly designed to damage my professional reputation. As a female journalist and commentator, the posts also had a deeply misogynistic tone to them, all too common on social media.” In context to legal proceeding on behalf of Allison Morris, the law firm stated that “Allison Morris has issued libel proceedings seeking injunctive relief requiring Eoghan Harris to disclose all fake accounts he used to harass and defame her on social media platform Twitter over a period of months, as well as all those other individuals who were involved.”

Allison shared on her Twitter account that, “I have instructed the Phoenix Law Firm to take legal action against Eoghan Harris to retrieve data from a number of accounts that were engaged in sustained abuse of myself.” Allison has received grave death threats in the past. Allison shared the images of a graffiti drawn naming her as an MI5 agent along with a crosshair. The drawn graffiti was spotted in North Belfast on February 11. She has received threats from paramilitary forces earlier as well. 

The Coalition For Women In Journalism stands in solidarity with Aoife and Allison for their fight against online harassment and abuse. The perpetrators attacking women journalists must be held accountable for the agony they cause. We hope that legal action against Eoghan Harris is a big step to help create a safe online environment. Trolls that attack women journalists via anonymous accounts and say vile things, would consider it a warning for them too.