BBC to contact court over allegations police spied on journalist Vincent Kearney

The BBC has instructed its lawyers to contact a specialist tribunal over allegations that police spied on one of its investigative reporters.

The corporation said the allegations relate to former BBC journalist Vincent Kearney and his work on a 2011 Spotlight documentary investigating the independence of Northern Ireland’s police watchdog.

Kearney, RTÉ’s current northern editor, said he is determined to find out what happened.

The allegations emerged as part of a case already being examined by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) into allegations that two other investigative journalists working in Northern Ireland have been subject to illegal covert surveillance by police. .

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

The Police Service of Northern Ireland later apologized unreservedly for the treatment the men had received and agreed to pay £875,000 (€1,000,000) in damages to the journalists and the film company behind the documentary film.

In 2019, Birney and McCaffrey filed a complaint with the IPT asking it to establish whether they had been subjected to any illegal surveillance.

The court is also investigating two other policing cases against McCaffrey in 2013 and 2011. It met in a brief hearing in February and is due to resume its work later this year.

It is understood that information suggesting Kearney may also have been subject to surveillance emerged during disclosure processes relating to the McCaffrey and Birney case.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We have instructed lawyers to write to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal about alleged PSNI surveillance of work-related phone data of Vincent Kearney during his employment at the BBC, in relation to a BBC Spotlight program in Northern Ireland broadcast in 2011.

“We believe that serious issues of public interest are involved, including in relation to the adverse effects that surveillance can have on investigations and journalistic freedoms.”

The 2011 Spotlight program examined allegations that the independence of the Police Ombudsman’s office had been compromised and that it was not investigating allegations of police misconduct, including allegations of collusion, with sufficient rigor.

Public Defender Al Hutchinson rejected accusations that his investigations lacked independence. He resigned in January 2012.

Commenting on the police surveillance allegations against him, Kearney said: “I am concerned that the police attempted to identify sources of information within a program that was actually about the independence of the Police Ombudsman’s office.

“Journalists must be free to do their work without fear of police trying to secretly identify sources and I am determined to find out what happened.”

Last month, the PSNI handed a report into the surveillance of journalists and lawyers to its oversight body, the Police Board of Northern Ireland.

However, the document on surveillance practices will not be made public.

The board’s human rights adviser will have access to the material on which the report is based, and PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher has committed to producing a second report, which will be made public.