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The Scotsman, a Scottish based publication, ran a headline reading, "Terror Links of Man Charged in Stormont Spying Case." The article focused on claims by the prosecuting lawyers that Donaldson has connections with terrorist "groups and organizations in Madrid, Beirut, El Salvador and Italy." The short article also managed to mention that Donaldson was "invited to the wedding of a chef wanted for questioning in connection with the seizure of informants" files during a raid on Special Branch offices in Belfast earlier this year." Again, here the tone of the article was that of a guilty Denis Donaldson, giving mostly only facts to accuse, instead of defend him.
On the other side of the spectrum, The Belfast Times ran articles that seemed to try and bolster the character of Donaldson. One headline reads, "Spy Accused Took Part in Peace Talks; Donaldson Denies being a member of the IRA." The word "accused" says so much in this situation, because it points out that he has not been found guilty yet, where there articles found from the "motherland" all say "spy" rather than "accused spy." The article claims that Donaldson risked his life to try and help save a teacher and was involved in peace talks with unionists as far back as 1991. Words such as accused and alleged are used often in the article, which clearly gives the impression of a respectable Denis Donaldson, as opposed to the seemingly deviant one presented in the articles to come out of England and Scotland. But the accusations of him being involved with other terrorist organizations were not left out of the article completely. From reading this particular article, one gets the feeling that even if Mr. Donaldson is in fact guilty of the crimes that he is accused of, he did it for a decent cause and should not be judged too harshly. .
The Daily Telegraph of London seemed to give a fairly objective article regarding the arrest of Donaldson.
