Two journalists from Belfast, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, found themselves under illegal surveillance by UK police forces, a court revealed today. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) ruled that the former chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) had overstepped legal bounds by approving an operation aimed at identifying a confidential source who leaked information to the journalists. This targeting followed their work on a documentary that uncovered police collusion in the 1994 murders of six innocent Catholics during a football match in Loughinisland.
Today’s ruling is significant. It marks the first time the IPT has ordered police to compensate journalists for unlawful surveillance. The PSNI acknowledged they had spied on 500 lawyers and 300 journalists in Northern Ireland, which even included more than a dozen BBC staff members.
Birney and McCaffrey have faced scrutiny before. In 2019, senior judges quashed arrest warrants against them, revealing that the police operation was a failed attempt to expose their sources. The tribunal’s judgment highlighted that the PSNI’s decision to surveil was unlawful, failing to consider whether public interest justified such interference with journalistic sources.
The IPT also found that former PSNI chief George Hamilton improperly authorized surveillance aimed at a civilian Police Ombudsman employee suspected of leaking information. It concluded Hamilton acted unlawfully, violating journalistic rights protected under the European Convention on Human Rights.
In addition, the tribunal uncovered that the Metropolitan Police had accessed over 4,000 communications from Birney, McCaffrey, and other journalists linked to BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight. They ruled that this data acquisition was unlawful and that it had been shared with the PSNI without proper justification.
McCaffrey faced unwarranted surveillance after he contacted the PSNI press office regarding possible corruption within the police. His phone communications were scrutinized despite his cooperation in delaying a related story. The police labeled McCaffrey as a “suspect” instead of respecting his role as a journalist.
The judgment raises broader issues about police practices. Both journalists emphasized the need for reform, highlighting failures in oversight regarding surveillance operations targeting the press.
The IPT ordered the PSNI to compensate each journalist with £4,000, echoing sums previously awarded by European courts to journalists facing state surveillance. Chief Constable Jon Boutcher conceded the PSNI’s failure to appropriately balance public interest and press freedom, acknowledging the complex challenges the police face but also accepting accountability for their actions.