Police in Northern Ireland unlawfully used covert powers to attempt to uncover eight journalists’ sources, a review by Angus McCullough KC and published on 24 September has found. The report was commissioned by the Police Service in Northern Ireland (PSNI). It examined the issue after a tribunal last year ruled an undercover police operation to try to unmask the journalistic sources of two award-winning documentary makers, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, was unlawful. Yorkshire Bylines has previously covered the story.
The McCullough Review
The McCullough Review found that attempts were made on 21 occasions to identify reporters’ sources prior to 2015.
The review also raised “significant concerns” about the PSNI conducting trawls of its own communications systems records in “an untargeted wholesale attempt to identify unauthorised contact between PSNI personnel and journalists”.
However, McCullough concluded, “I have found no basis for concerns that PSNI surveillance of journalists or lawyers is widespread or systemic.” He added: “Whilst there is scope for improvement in PSNI’s practices in various identified respects, and some specific incidents where there has been what I consider to be a failure to comply with the relevant legal provisions, I can find no basis for any suggestion that the powers available to PSNI are being routinely abused in relation to journalists, lawyers or others of special status as identified in the terms of reference.”
Unlawful surveillance of journalists
The review made 16 recommendations, including commissioning a supplementary report. It also recommended that the PSNI brings together all the units responsible for the authorisation process for all forms of covert surveillance.
Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland director of Amnesty International UK, said: “This report exposes a disturbing pattern of unlawful covert surveillance of journalists, with the PSNI showing clear disregard for press freedom and the rule of law.
“The scale of the wrongdoing is alarming, from repeated attempts to identify reporters’ sources to covert operations concealed from oversight bodies.
“But questions remain. How far has MI5 gone in unlawfully monitoring journalists in Northern Ireland?”
Welcoming the report, the NUJ assistant general secretary, Séamus Dooley, said the NUJ views the review as “a valuable starting point with key recommendations which, if adopted, would help ensure strict adherence to best practice by the PSNI”.
He echoed the union’s call for an independent investigation into police surveillance in Northern Ireland, separate from PSNI surveillance covered by the McCullough Review.
Calls for a commission for covert law enforcement in Northern Ireland
In a letter to Hilary Benn (MP for Leeds South and secretary of state for Northern Ireland), he also supported the joint call by Amnesty International and the Committee on the Administration of Justice, for the appointment of a commission for covert law enforcement in Northern Ireland, in line with the long-ignored recommendation of the Patten Commission.
In his letter, Dooley highlighted the unsatisfactory nature of the secretive, costly and complex Investigatory Powers Tribunal process which, he said, had led to the denial of justice because of the barriers faced by so many potential complainants.
He also told Benn that he had “a historic opportunity to help rebuild trust and confidence in policing in Northern Ireland”.
A normalised surveillance state in Northern Ireland
Commenting shortly after publication of the report, Belfast journalists Birney and McCaffrey thanked McCullough for doing his best to find out how much the PSNI have been spying on journalists and lawyers. They also expressed grave concerns that state surveillance of journalists and lawyers has become “normalised” in Northern Ireland.
McCaffrey concluded: “We want to thank Angus McCullough KC, as today’s review is a stepping stone taking us further towards the truth. But the price paid has been the erosion of press freedom and public accountability. The review sets out an astonishing number of new cases of unlawful police surveillance and we could now end up seeing more and more information come out at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. This has the potential to become one of the biggest surveillance scandals in recent UK history.”
