Surveillance operations withheld by Police Service of Northern Ireland
The NUJ has strongly condemned a previous decision by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) not to disclose details of two surveillance operations to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office (IPCO).
The covert operations included the targeting of journalists and took place in 2018 and 2023; both should have been relayed to the IPCO. It has been revealed the operations were disclosed only this year, despite the IPCO seeking information about surveillance relating to journalists previously. The PSNI’s disclosure took place once information on the operations had become public knowledge.
The 2018 surveillance operation into journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney was last year ruled unlawful by the IPT. The NUJ was granted leave to intervene in the case to inform on wide-ranging and grave implications of the covert monitoring of journalists.
The union expresses significant concern over the PSNI’s failure to adhere to its responsibilities to the IPCO, recognising it as shocking efforts to keep crucial information from the Commissioner's Office.
Ian McGuiness, NUJ Irish organiser, said:
"The latest revelations about the PSNI not disclosing surveillance of journalists to the IPCO shows an element of contempt for the oversight body and the role of journalists in society. It appears obvious that once again the PSNI were trying to uncover journalists’ confidential sources. Allegations of the PSNI spying on journalists is not new. The question now is how many more instances that we don’t know about.
"NUJ members will once again be dismayed at these latest revelations and any confidence that they had that the PSNI will stop spying on them to uncover their sources has surely been further eroded."