Former journalist admitting offence taken after threats (8)
I believe the answer is:
extorted
'taken after threats' is the definition.
'former journalist admitting offence' is the wordplay.
'former' becomes 'ex'.
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'admitting' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'offence' becomes 'tort' (legal term for a type of offence).
'ex'+'ed'='exed'
'exed' going around 'tort' is 'EXTORTED'.
(Other definitions for extorted that I've seen before include "Obtained money by threats" , "Forced out" , "Gained by threats" , "Extracted money with menaces" , "Obtained by force or threat" .)