During the Troubles, the British government tried hard to recruit informants, or “touts,” as they were called, among the paramilitary gangs on both sides of the conflict. The problem is that by collecting intelligence from terrorists engaged in deadly criminality, the state can be complicit in those crimes. And when informants commit murder, the state has an incentive to keep its homicidal secrets hidden from the citizens it is sworn to protect. This raised the biggest question of all for our investigation of the Loughinisland murders: What secrets should the government be able to keep forever? That issue would cause my filmmaking team itself to become a target of the government of Northern Ireland. 
Source : How the Truth of ‘The Troubles’ Is Still Suppressed
