Revelations around PSNI surveillance of two journalists ‘tip of iceberg’

David Young, PA

Revelations around police surveillance of two journalists in the North are just the tip of a “very large and very dangerous iceberg”, one of the reporters has warned.

Barry McCaffrey was commenting as campaigners called for the North's Policing Board to set up an inquiry into allegations of unlawful covert surveillance of journalists in the region.

Amnesty International and the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) have written to the board, the oversight body for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), raising “serious concerns over how widespread the practice of surveillance of journalists and others may have been”.

The move comes after a tribunal was told that police mounted a covert surveillance operation following the arrest of Mr McCaffrey and his colleague Trevor Birney in a bid to unmask one of their sources.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) was told last week that the arrest of film-makers in 2018 was a “disruptive” tactic to see if the reporters would reach out to the source after their release from custody.

The tribunal is also investigating several incidents, the first dating back to 2011, involving police accessing Mr McCaffrey’s phone data.

The PSNI and Metropolitan Police in London both obtained the reporter’s phone data without his knowledge or consent.

In 2018, Mr McCaffrey and Mr Birney were controversially arrested as part of a police investigation into the alleged leaking of a confidential document that appeared in a documentary they made on a Troubles massacre.

The following year, the two journalists lodged a complaint with the IPT asking it to establish whether there had been any unlawful surveillance of them.

The case is ongoing.

Mr McCaffrey joined representatives from Amnesty, the CAJ and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) on Wednesday to make the case for a Policing Board inquiry.

“What is emerging through the ongoing IPT hearings in London has truly shocked journalists in Britain and Ireland,” he said.

The film-maker said reporters in Northern Ireland had been spied on by police for the “supposed crime of simply carrying out their journalistic duties”.

“On each and every one of the spying operations the sole aim of police was to identify journalistic sources,” he said.

“On each and every occasion this was an attack on press freedom. Its sole aim was to frighten and intimidate journalists and sources. What was outlined in the Royal Courts of Justice last week is only the tip of a very large and very dangerous iceberg.”

The letter to Policing Board chairwoman Deirdre Toner has been sent by Patrick Corrigan from Amnesty and Daniel Holder from the CAJ.

Mr Corrigan told the press conference in Belfast that the Policing Board had to use the powers available to it to establish the extent of the surveillance undertaken.

“We want to see full disclosure of all and any incidents of police surveillance of journalists, or indeed others such as NGOs, activists, lawyers,” he said.

“We want to see the Policing Board step up and fulfil their responsibility to provide adequate oversight of the PSNI, particularly around this issue of surveillance of journalists.

“It’s already emerging that the PSNI have acted unlawfully, have breached the human rights of journalists and the Policing Board obviously has the responsibility there to provide accountability and oversight of the police.”

Mr Holder said the protection of sources was one of the cornerstones of a democratic society.

He described the surveillance as an “alarming practice”.

“We need to know how widespread this was,” Mr Holder added.

Ian McGuinness, Irish organiser at the NUJ, urged the PSNI to “come clean” on the use of covert surveillance against the media.

He described it as a “dagger to the heart of legitimate and robust public interest journalism”.

“A robust, independent, diverse media, covering stories in the public interest is the cornerstone of any democratic society,” Mr McGuinness said.

“So this has implications outside the world of journalism too. Surveillance of journalists and their sources has a chilling effect on journalism and on the media.”

A Policing Board spokesperson said: “The Policing Board will consider the correspondence received from Amnesty at its monthly meeting on Thursday.”

A PSNI spokesperson said: “As legal proceedings are ongoing it would be inappropriate to comment.”