The Northern editor of the Sunday World newspaper has told UTV he will not be intimidated by "drug dealers" after he was attacked in the centre of Belfast.
Jim McDowell, 60, was kicked and punched by four men just yards from City Hall on Wednesday afternoon.
He was injured in the head, arms and legs.
"They gave me a furious beating," McDowell told UTV Live Tonight.
"I was punched and beaten to the ground in front of screaming children and screaming women, and this is in front of Belfast City Hall."
"They won't intimidate me, they won't intimidate my paper. We will still expose these boys. They're para-mafia. They're paramilitaries. I think I know they're drug dealers."
The attack happened less than a fortnight after his car was smashed up outside a court in Craigavon, Co Armagh as he attended a hearing involving a number of men charged in connection with the murder of one of his reporters, Martin O'Hagan.
Mr O'Hagan was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries in Lurgan, Co Armagh in September 2001.
Jim McDowell had been visiting Belfast's Christmas market in the grounds of City Hall when he was knocked to the ground at around 4.30pm.
Earlier he attended a special reception for James Kelly, a columnist with the Irish News newspaper.
He has been threatened several times before by loyalists and republicans and has blamed drugs dealers for the attack.
"I heard this voice behind me saying either: 'You killed my brother' or 'You're trying to get my brother killed', and before I even turned around I was jumped from the back and received a big dig in the side of my head, then a dig in the other side of my head," he told UTV Live Tonight.
"My biggest problem is their arrogance."
"These boys didn't even run away. They swaggered away, as if it didn't matter."
"I'll be in my work in the morning. They won't stop us. They cannot attack the freedom of speech, the freedom of expression or the freedom of the press. They'll not get away with this. They'll not stop me."
Police said one of the attackers was described as being 5 ft 9ins, clean shaven with a pale complexion. He was wearing a black hooded top and a distinctive black striped woolly hat.
A second man is described as being of stocky build. He had hair cropped at the sides and was bald on top. He was wearing a red jacket and dark trousers.
Police have appealed for anyone with information to come forward.
© UTV News