Two senior reporters have received a High Court apology over unfounded accusations of hypocrisy surrounding a murdered colleague.
The National Union of Journalists also issued a retraction as part of the settlement reached in a libel action brought by Jim McDowell and Hugh Jordan of the Sunday World newspaper.
Mr McDowell, the paper's northern editor, and Mr Jordan sued the NUJ after its magazine published an article about the assassination of Martin O'Hagan.
Mr O'Hagan, an investigative reporter with the Sunday World, was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries near his home in Lurgan, Co Armagh in September 2001.
His killers pulled up beside him and opened fire as he and his wife walked home from their local pub.
Although full details of the settlement reached were not disclosed, it is understood damages have been paid to Mr McDowell and Mr Jordan.
Following resolution of the case a barrister for the NUJ read out an agreed statement at the High Court in Belfast.
He said: "In the October/November 2003 edition of The Journalist magazine the defendants published an article under the headline 'Never Forget' which included allegations that the Sunday World editor Jim McDowell and journalist Hugh Jordan were guilty of hypocrisy and unethical conduct in relation to their late colleague and fellow journalist Martin O'Hagan."
"The defendants accept that these allegations are totally unfounded and they apologise unreservedly for any embarrassment and distress caused by any inferences to the contrary in their article."
Mr McDowell and Mr Jordan were both in court but declined to make any comment.
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