Police Found Guilty of Unlawful Surveillance on Investigative Journalists in Northern Ireland

AFP | Belfast, United Kingdom
Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and London's Metropolitan Police unlawfully conducted surveillance on two investigative journalists and documentary filmmakers, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, to uncover their sources, a Belfast tribunal ruled on Tuesday.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal, an independent British judicial body, determined that the PSNI must pay £4,000 ($5,081) each in damages to Birney and McCaffrey for the covert surveillance.

The two journalists were arrested in 2018 after producing No Stone Unturned, an award-winning documentary about the 1994 Loughinisland massacre. The film revealed details of the murder of six Catholic men by pro-UK loyalist paramilitaries during Northern Ireland's "Troubles" and highlighted apparent police collusion with the perpetrators.

The tribunal quashed the PSNI's authorisation for covert surveillance, ruling it unlawful. The Metropolitan Police were also found to have unlawfully surveilled McCaffrey in 2012.

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher accepted the judgment, acknowledging that insufficient consideration had been given to the public interest in protecting journalistic sources before approving the surveillance.

"I am committed to ensuring that the PSNI use the powers available to us in a way that is lawful, proportionate, and accountable," Boutcher said.