PSNI are ‘obsessive with journalists and sources’

PSNI are ‘obsessive with journalists and sources’

15 May 2024

CLAIMS that the PSNI accessed the phone records of “troublemaker journalists” involved in a documentary about the 1994 Heights Bar massacre in Loughinisland in a bid to uncover their sources have been heard by a court in London.

The claim was made last week by a lawyer acting for Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey who made the No Stone Unturned documentary about the murder of six innocent Catholic men in the pub while watching a World Cup match.

The film examined how the Royal Ulster Constabulary handled the UVF murders. 

The PSNI later unreservedly apologised for how the journalists had been treated and agreed to pay £875,000 in damages to them and the film company behind the documentary.

The settlement came after a court ruled that the warrants used by police to search the journalists’ homes and Fine Point Films had been “inappropriate”.

The journalists are arguing that there were repeated and unjustified attempts by the PSNI and Durham Police to identify their sources and that the extent of their conduct to unmask their confidential sources has been kept secret for many years.

During last week’s hearing, Mr Ben Jaffey KC said the journalists believed they were targeted by unlawful covert surveillance.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is examining allegations that the PSNI used unlawful covert surveillance in an attempt to unmask journalists’ sources.

Evidence given to the tribunal in a witness statement from a former Durham police employee referred to a PSNI “defensive operation” which involved “cross-referencing [telephone] billing with police telephone numbers on a six monthly basis” of Northern Irish journalists.

Mr Jaffey said this operation was apparently in place at the end of 2017 and included all Northern Irish journalists who were perceived to conduct unwanted investigations into the PSNI.

He said it appeared that Mr McCaffrey was one such journalist affected by the so-called “defensive operation”.

Mr Jaffey argued that as well as being obviously unlawful, the rolling programme of authorisations had not disclosed or explained in the PSNI evidence to the tribunal to date.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is examining allegations that Mr Birney and Mr McCaffrey were subject to unlawful covert surveillance.

Outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London last Wednesday, Mr Birney said it was “quite clear what we heard this morning in court is that the PSNI are absolutely obsessive with journalists and their sources”.

He continued: “I think we need to remind the PSNI and remind the authorities in Belfast that journalism isn’t a crime and that journalists all over the world have sources and that is lawful and that is absolutely what journalists are there to do.”

Mr Birney described what was revealed during the court hearing as “incredibly worrying”, referring

to the industrial harvesting of journalists’ phone data.

He continued: “I think that is something that we really need to find out more about and we need to find out quickly and the PSNI have a duty of candour to this court in order to explain properly, rather than being dragged to this court kicking and screaming which is what has been going on here for five years.”

Mr Birney added: “The PSNI have to now finally come forward with the truth and tell this court exactly what it’s doing with journalists and their phones and their communications data.”

Mr McCaffrey, who complained to the tribunal in 2019, said last week’s hearing was a “red line day” and the Policing Board “need to take control and authority of the PSNI and Naomi Long, the Justice Minister needs to do the same”.

Mr McCaffrey and Mr Birney had been arrested over the suspected theft of files from the Police Ombudsman’s Office in 2018.

South Down MP Chris Hazzard said the revelations from the Investigatory Powers Tribunal has revealed the extent of British state collusion in denying families truth and justice.

“It is deeply disturbing that the PSNI withheld key information during the Loughinisland investigation and only gave the Police Ombudsman information which ‘suited’ the PSNI,” he said.

“This is yet another shocking example of the lengths that police and state bodies have gone to deny families truth and justice, and instead have sought to criminalise journalists for doing their job.”

The MP said while the journalists were working on the ‘No Stone Unturned’ documentary, it was “becoming increasingly clear the British state launched an extensive covert surveillance operation to silence Mr Birney and Mr McCaffrey”.

He added: “It is not lost on the people of South Down that the time, effort and resources deployed by the British state to suppress investigatory journalists stands in stark contrast to the abysmal failure to investigate the murder of six men watching a football match in Loughinisland in 1994.”