RTE News: BBC raises alleged surveillance of journalist by police

Story from RTE News:

The BBC in Northern Ireland has begun a legal process to establish whether a senior journalist was subjected to alleged police surveillance.

The case involves Vincent Kearney, who is now RTÉ's Northern Editor.

In 2011, he was a documentary maker with the BBC in Belfast.

The broadcaster has written to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal in London about alleged PSNI surveillance of phone data linked to Mr Kearney's work at the time.

The tribunal is an independent judicial body which provides the right of redress to anyone who believes they may have been the victim of unlawful action by a public body using covert investigative techniques.

"We think that serious issues of public interest are involved, including in relation to the adverse effects that surveillance may have on journalistic investigations and freedoms," a BBC spokesperson said.

The case centres on a documentary that Mr Kearney made in 2011 for BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight programme.

Titled the "Whistleblower and the Watchdog" it investigated the Office of Northern Ireland's Police Ombudsman.

In particular, it examined allegations that its independence had been compromised and that it was not investigating complaints about police activities, including allegations of collusion, with sufficient rigour.

The programme led to calls for the resignation of then ombudsman Al Hutchinson, who announced his intention to step down a short time later.

Mr Kearney said he was concerned that police may have attempted to identify sources of information for the programme.

"Journalists must be free to carry out their work without fear that the police may secretly try to identify sources and I'm determined to find out what happened," he said.

It is believed the incident came to light during a recent case by two other Belfast journalists who complained that they had been subjected to unlawful police monitoring.

Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey alleged they had been subjected to covert surveillance techniques in the course of their investigative work.

The Chief Constable of the PSNI Jon Boutcher was asked about the alleged surveillance of Mr Kearney at a public meeting of the Policing Board today.

He promised there would be transparency around the issue of who was being monitored by police and why.

"I'm aware there are concerns around Vincent Kearney, the journalist," Mr Boutcher said.

"Vincent Kearney, I have enormous regard for him professionally and personally and will ensure that anything, any due process, anything that needs to be done, access to material for any concerns that anybody's got, follows due process through the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, through Investigatory Power Commission inspections and through this board.

"That's three layers of examination and scrutiny that we will absolutely co-operate with."

The National Union of Journalists has described the allegations as 'disturbing'.

Irish Secretary of the NUJ, Seamus Dooley, said "at the heart of this is the operation of a secretive process called the Independent Powers Tribunal, IPT, in London".

He said the Chief Constable confirmed to the Policing Board in Northern Ireland last month that there were "18 PSNI spying incidents...involving, interestingly, both journalists and lawyers, not more than 10 of each".

"And I would worry about when he talks about due process, the due process is secretive and there's no guarantee that Vincent Kearney's case, if it does come, would even be held in public," Mr Dooley said.

There seems to be "compelling evidence on record that this did happen," Mr Dooley added, and that the "spying incidents" the Chief Constable has talked about "strike at the very heart of democracy".

"The police appear to have investigated Vincent Kearney's activities and by definition, that would have to involve trying to look at his sources," he said.

"So here we are on the eve of World Press Freedom Day looking at the PSNI pursuing, yet again, sources, which is exactly what happened with McCaffrey and Birney."

Mr Dooley added that the investigation which the BBC is now seeking from the IPT could "take years."

"It's not good enough" for the Chief Constable of the PSNI to say it is necessary to ensure that due process is observed, he said.

"The Chief Constable has it within his powers to explain now to the BBC what happened - we do not need a full legal process," Mr Dooley said.

"I do not believe there could be any justification for spying on the basis of merely to find out who snitched on the relationship between the Office of the [Police] Ombudsman and the PSNI."

© RTÉ 2024.