Worried journalist after past offence recalled (8)
I believe the answer is:
agonised
'worried' is the definition.
(to agonise is to worry or fret)
'journalist after past offence recalled' is the wordplay.
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'past' becomes 'ago' (similar in meaning).
'offence' becomes 'sin' (a sin is an offence or transgression).
'recalled' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'sin' back-to-front is 'nis'.
'ago'+'nis'='agonis'
'ed' put after 'agonis' is 'AGONISED'.
(Other definitions for agonised that I've seen before include "Tormented" , "San Diego (anagram)" , "Struggled" , "Suffered mentally in San Diego" , "suffered a lot" .)