Review into surveillance of journalists 'does not go far enough'

AN independent review into the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s surveillance of journalists does not go far enough, a House of Commons committee heard today.

The Detail editor Trevor Birney told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (NIAC), which is investigating press freedom in the north, that the review is “a first step” and only a public inquiry “will really get to the bottom of this”.

During evidence given to the committee today, Mr Birney and The Detail’s former senior journalist Barry McCaffrey outlined how they were wrongly arrested in August 2018 over their documentary, No Stone Unturned, into the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) killing of six men in Loughinisland, Co Down, in June 1994.

The PSNI later apologised for the pair’s arrests and paid substantial damages.

In December, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which looks at complaints against the UK’s intelligence services, found the PSNI and the Metropolitan Police had put the journalists under unlawful surveillance.

Mr Birney said issues highlighted by the IPT could affect all police forces in the UK.

He said the independent review, headed by Angus McCullough KC, into the PSNI's surveillance, is not sufficient.

“We don’t believe the review will go far enough," he said.

"We believe the remit is far too narrow."

He said the McCullough Review should go back “much further” than 2011.

“It only covers the period from 2011 to 2024," he said.

"But what we learnt at the IPT, in Barry’s case, is that there was one case in 2008 when Barry’s phone data was lifted.”

Mr Birney said the harvesting of journalists’ data “was an attack on democracy” which also affected lawyers and politicians who spoke to reporters.

NUJ Assistant General Secretary Seamus Dooley also said the McCullough Review, which has so far received around 40 complaints from journalists and lawyers, is limited.

“This is about the wider treatment of journalists and it is not just Northern Ireland based,” he said.

“The question of how many more people have been put under surveillance - it’s not just journalists… The right to be represented by lawyers is undermined by surveillance of lawyers.”

Mr McCaffrey said in his and Mr Birney’s case, police had not followed proper guidelines and had “tried to bypass the judiciary” in putting journalists under surveillance.

“Confidence in policing has been seriously undermined and damaged,” he said.

He said legislation “needs to be strengthened because as it stands the PSNI ignored it”.

The committee also heard from Allison Morris, the Belfast Telegraph’s crime correspondent, who said she had received “eight or nine” death threats from paramilitaries and organised crime gangs in the last 12 months.

“That has included police, at 2.30am in the morning, searching for bombs under my car,” she said.

“There was actually a device which exploded on my street. I was told that I would be shot by dissident republicans on my way into work… I’ve had threats from loyalist paramilitary groups and a well-armed crime gang which has been responsible for three murders.”

Ms Morris added that she had had to find “a way to live with” repeated threats.

“I try, in my head I suppose, and rationalise it," she said.

"I get to go home to my very heavily fortified house at night. The people who I speak to, who speak out against paramilitaries, don’t."

Ms Morris has lodged a complaint with the IPT over alleged police surveillance against her.

She said she was told by a source that the surveillance “went beyond phones” and included covert intelligence gathering “to spy on me”.

“The problem with the IPT is that it takes such a long time (for them to hear a case),” she said.

Ms Morris said online threats against her were “a daily occurrence” and most were “very sexual, misogynistic”.

“It’s very specific to female journalists,” she said.

“What I do would have been… quite a male job… so therefore you get that added misogyny of people who can’t abide the fact that there is a mouthy woman doing a job that they don’t believe I should be doing.”

The committee also heard from lawyer Paul Tweed and journalist and author Malachi O’Doherty over how legal action, particularly the use of SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), affects reporting.