Policing Board 'must launch inquiry into PSNI surveillance of journalists'

THE Policing Board must launch a formal inquiry into the PSNI's use of surveillance powers against journalists, human rights’ organisations have said.

Amnesty International and the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) said they are concerned that the PSNI has not provided clear information on the wider use of surveillance against journalists, months after it emerged the force had accessed a prominent reporter’s phone.

In July, it emerged that the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which looks into complaints around police surveillance, had discovered that the PSNI had secretly harvested data from a phone owned by former senior journalist with The Detail, Barry McCaffrey in 2013.

The Policing Board asked the PSNI in September for an update on whether police had conducted surveillance of journalists or lawyers over the last few years.

But five months on, no update has been given.

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher told a meeting of the Policing Board yesterday that while he could not talk about individual cases, he had met Investigatory Powers Commissioner, Sir Brian Leveson, who is responsible for reviewing the use of investigatory powers by public authorities, last week.

“The legislation provides protection for journalistic material,” Mr Boutcher told the board.

“We are very respectful of journalistic material… Please be assured that this an area that we would only authorise intrusive tactics into people’s private lives where they are properly justified and those cases are properly reviewed.”

A spokeswoman for the Policing Board said: “The board agreed that its Human Rights Advisor (John Wadham) should review the issue and this work is ongoing.

“The new Chief Constable has now been asked to advise on the position with the Board’s request, and a response is awaited.”

Police accessed Mr McCaffrey’s phone while he was investigating allegations that a senior PSNI employee was in receipt of payments from a private company.

Mr McCaffrey’s phone was accessed years before he and Mr Birney were falsely arrested in August 2018 over their documentary No Stone Unturned into the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) murder of six Catholic men in Loughinisland, Co Down, in June 1994.

The High Court in Belfast later found that the warrant issued for searches of the documentary makers’ homes and offices and the seizing of journalistic material was unlawful.

As a result of the case, legal counsel for the journalists asked the IPT about any invasive action taken against them by the PSNI, Durham Constabulary and the intelligence services during the No Stone Unturned investigation.

It later emerged Mr McCaffrey's phone was accessed by the PSNI in 2013.

The IPT will hear a complaint from Mr McCaffrey and The Detail editor Trevor Birney at a public hearing later this month.

Patrick Corrigan, from Amnesty International Northern Ireland, said the PSNI must clearly state whether it put journalists under surveillance.

“The PSNI has a dreadful record on press freedom, having repeatedly arrested journalists and threatened them with jail time should they not reveal their sources,” he said.

“Time after time, the courts have found against them and in favour of press freedom, most recently in the case of Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey.

“Amnesty is concerned that this incident may indicate a wider pattern of covert police surveillance of journalists and others such as lawyers and human rights defenders.

"That is why we and our colleagues in CAJ asked the Policing Board to investigate police practices.

“It is now clear that the PSNI has failed to respond to legitimate enquiries from the Policing Board, and five months on, the Board still cannot get answers to their questions.

“The Policing Board should now initiate a formal inquiry under the powers vested in it under the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000.

“The Board has a statutory duty to ensure PSNI compliance with the Human Rights Act. They must now act to fulfil that duty.”

CAJ director Daniel Holder said police need to say if the case is indicative of wider surveillance practices.

“It’s essential we get to the bottom of whether this incident as revealed by the IPT case is demonstrative of a broad practice of surveillance of journalists,” he said.

“The PSNI are accountable to the Policing Board and are required to report to them.”