PSNI routinely accessed phone data of ‘troublemaker’ journalists, court told – The Irish Times

Police in Northern Ireland carried out semi-annual scans of the phone data of “troublemaker” journalists to see if they were in contact with official sources, a court heard.

Details of what were described as “Orwellian” PSNI spy tactics against journalists emerged at a session of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) in London.

The revelations were aired in the latest hearing of a case examining allegations that two investigative journalists in Northern Ireland were the subject of illegal covert intelligence by police.

Evidence presented to the court on Wednesday suggested that spy operations by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) extended to a number of other reporters operating in the region.

In 2018, investigative documentary filmmakers 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 film they made about a Troubles massacre.

The PSNI later apologized unreservedly for the treatment the men had received and agreed to pay £875,000 in damages to the journalists and the film company behind the documentary.

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 PSNI had asked Durham Police to take the lead in investigating the leaked Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman document which appeared in the documentary No Stone Unturned, about the 1994 loyalist paramilitary massacre in the Loughinisland village in Co Down.

Last week, 600 pages of new evidence were revealed to the court ahead of a substantive hearing scheduled for October.

Those documents included a Durham Police minute of a meeting between Durham’s senior investigating officer, Darren Ellis, and two PSNI detective sergeants working on intelligence operations.

McCaffrey’s lawyer, Ben Jaffey KC, who articulated his client and Birney’s joint position, revealed that the note referred to what was described as a PSNI “defensive operation” against journalists in the region.

“It appears to reveal the existence of what the PSNI calls a defensive operation involving the matching of invoices with police telephone numbers every six months by what appears to be a group of Northern Irish journalists who have written unkind things about the PSNI.” , he told the court.

The lawyer said the document indicated that the operation definitely took place in 2017.

But he added: “We don’t know when it started, we don’t know when it ends and we don’t know what it entails.”

Jaffey said the PSNI had yet to provide a response to the material revealed by Durham Police.

“But if this is what’s been happening, obviously we say it’s illegal to go and take a list of rowdy journalists, get their billing every six months and compare it to a list of police phone numbers, and see if those journalists have new police sources is clearly illegal.

“A defensive operation can only be what we say is a slightly Orwellian euphemism.”

The PSNI and other defendants in the case have been asked to respond to the issues raised before a further review hearing in July.

Outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, after the session was adjourned, Birney said the hearing made it clear that the PSNI was “absolutely obsessed with journalists and their sources”.

“The PSNI have a duty to be honest before this court so they can explain properly rather than being dragged into this court kicking and screaming, which is what has been happening here for five years,” he added.

McCaffrey added: “The dark arts were supposed to disappear after the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement, they seem to still be here and they are thriving and they seem to be in charge, that can’t be allowed to happen.” continue.” – PA