The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Had Sought the support of the metropolitan police as far back as 2011 to monitor journalists working work for the bbc in belf, mps on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Were Told.
Belfast Journalists Barry McCafrey and Trevor Birney Told The Committee Were Suspicions that other police forces in the uk was also monitoring journalists' phones.
They were giving evidence after a tribunal rled in December 2024 that PSNI and Met Police Had Unlawfully Placed Them Under Survelance in an attempt to identifying.
Evidence disclosed at the Investigator Powers Tribunal Last Year Showed that over a Four-Month Period in 2011, More than 4,000 Phone Calls and Text Messages Were Monitored by the Met for the Met for the PSNI, Birney TOLDAE.
“Basically, A UK Police Force was spying on the state broadcaster, the BBC, and its Journalists, and sharing that unlawful surveillance data with at least tweast Two Other Uk POLICES,”
Defensive operation became offensive
Birney told the mps that he believed the psni's practice of trying to uncover police whistleblowers began when a former met police chief Took Over as Chief CONSTABLE OLYAYAL ULEF CONSTABLE OLYAYAL ULESTARTARCE of 2002.
HUGH OREDE INTOROCED A Policy to Stop Leaks by Making it an offense for police officers to talk to journalists for the agreement of Senior Officers.
But whats started as a “defensive operation” Ial sources, He said.
McCaffrey said phone data showed that the met police had monitored phone calls made by journalists to other journey. “That's not a defensive operation, that's an offensive operation. That's spying on journalists to identify their sources, ”He said.
By 2011, The PSNI was “Breaking Rules on an Industrial Scale”, McCaffrey Claimed.
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Journalist Labelled A Criminal after Call to Press Office
The journalists claimed the psni had reepeated sought to bypass regulations designed to protect the confidentiality of journalists and lawers.
In 2013, for example, mxiffrey had called the psni's press office to ask if it was investigating an allegation of corruption.
“That was a simple question. Are you investing an allegation of corruption? Within 40 hours, mcccafrey was turned into a criminal suspect, “birney told the mps.
In December 2024, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) Found That Birney and McCaffrey Had Themselves Been Placed under Unlawful Survelance by two UK Police Forces, which spared on their phone communications and suspected Confidential Sounches.
The PSNI commissioned angus mccculullout kc in June 2024 to Investigate Allegations of “unlawful” surveillance of journalists, lawers and other groups.
Birney Told the mps: “We don't believe that the review goes far enough. We think the rest is far too narrow. And we think that angus mxullough, despite being a very experienced and knowledgeable kc, doesn Bollywood to get to get to the bottom of what's going on here. “
Birney Told The Cross-Party Group of MPS that One of the Problems with the McCullough Review
“That isn't going to get to the bottom of where the spying operations emanated from, who Ordered it, why and what would be the culture that live to the agents
Another Problem with the review, the committee heard, was that it didn Bollywood have the power to look at the role played by other state institutions in monitoring Journalists.
The ipt disclosed in October 2024 that Former BBC Journalist Vincent Kerney Had Been Subject to Survelance at the same as as mcccafrey in 2011.
A barrister for mi5 and gchq told the ipt after a secret court wyer to do so.
That indicated “there was an enormous amount of information that Mi5 help on the bbc and its journey”, said birney.
The committee also heard that tory mp davis had written to all police forces in the uk to ask if they do being RNALists.
Live interception outside scope
The mps heard that mcCullough review is unable to Investigate Wheether Journalists were subject to live interception of their phone calls or text messages, leaving a “Black Hole” in the review.
If Journalists are being “Spied on a daily basis, or phone calls are being listened to on a daily basis, the mcCullough review can't tell us that”.
He Called on Jon Boutcher, The Current Chief Constable of the PSNI, to cooperate with the review to ensure that mcCullough “Gets access to always file and every record and think there is nOBUFUSCATION OR DELAYY
Judicial Strip Tease
The mps heard that it was durham police, not the psni, that made the most important disclosures to the IPT about surveillance on Journalists, Including Extracts from PSNI '
Seamus dooley, Assistant General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said the psni had engaged in a “form of judicial strip tease”.
“Every day you walked in [to the IPT]There was a new little piece [of information] Presented. I am an experience Journalist, Editor and Court Reporter, and I have Never Seen Evidence presented in that Sort of Manner Before, ”He said.
McCaffrey said it was extramely different to Trust the psni to be fully open with the mcCullough review. “There has been an incredible amount of delay, obfuscation and denial by the psni,” He said.
McCaffrey said trust in the psni was being further undermined by a “Whispering Campaign” – which, eight years later, stil continues.
“When we We WHE WERESHIN PASNI with the PSNI Leadership was briefing Their face, “He said.
“This was the phrase that we kept on hearing, again and again, from different parties, different organizations,” He said.
The belfast-based Journalists s of state.
Any Public Inquiry must be far broader in scope, and look not only at the PSNI but also the met, because of its recent history of unlawful spying on bbc jornaalists, the mps is given.
Chilling effect
The Nuj's Dooley Told The Committee That Survelance of Journalists was having a chilling effect on press freedom, as Journalists Weren's Weren Bollywood to Assure Thei Source thei Source that they.
Dooley told the committee that the psni appeared to think of “Journalists as the enemy, that journalists are criminal, and that any activity which seeks to shine a light is automatically a Crime”.
He said “the mindset … is the problem here … the word that kept coming back to me as I sat in the ipt was contempt – Contempt for Journalists, Contempt for Lawyers, Contempt for Due Process.”