Debate contribution: Independent Inquiry into the Alleged Use of Wiretapping of Northern Ireland Journalists

Debate contribution by Mr Patsy McGlone on 4 June 2024.

MLA

Mr Patsy McGlone

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

4 June 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Independent Inquiry into the Alleged Use of Wiretapping of Northern Ireland Journalists

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4493844

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I, of course, support of the motion, and I will qualify my response to the amendment. A free press is the cornerstone of any democratic society, and that has been repeated on multiple occasions here. It has a vital role in speaking truth to power. Journalists have not only a duty but a legal right to protect their sources. Surveillance of journalists and their sources has a deliberately chilling effect on the media, a key cornerstone of our democracy. I have listened to Members talk about the amendment, and I trust that the amendment tells us that the Minister will not sit on her hands, doing nothing and simply waiting until the Policing Board asks her to act. I put in the rider — it is up to the Minister to qualify it — that, if she determines that there is any aspect of kicking the tin down the alley, she will act. I trust that she will clarify that. I also argue that the evidence compels her to act now, because this is not simply an operational matter for the Policing Board to review; this is about public confidence that the police will act lawfully and about how they are held accountable if they do not. As Trevor Birney, one of the journalists at the heart of the story, has said, it is also about an undermining of freedom of the press in Northern Ireland. Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey were arrested in August 2018, and their homes and offices were raided. In May 2019, the Court of Appeal in Belfast quashed the warrants for their arrest. The court ruled that there was:

"no overriding requirement in the public interest which could have justified an interference with the protection of journalistic sources in this case."

In July 2020, the then Chief Constable, Simon Byrne, apologised to the journalists, and substantial damages were paid, amounting to a reported £875,000. That was all in relation to the documentary 'No Stone Unturned', which my colleague referred to. It investigated allegations of collusion in the UVF murders of six men in Loughinisland in 1994. It is thanks to the courage and tenacity of Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey that we now know about the industrial-scale spying operation used against journalists here.

It is only because the two journalists made a complaint to the investigatory powers tribunal in 2019 that a hearing is being held, and it is only because of that hearing that we have evidence of the unlawful spying operation. It is rare for such hearings to be in public, and it is an indication of the seriousness of the issue that they are being held in public in this case. However, a full hearing will not be held until October because the initial hearing was adjourned on its first day due to the late disclosure of police documents. What has been revealed is truly shocking.

Yes.

I thank the Member for his intervention. I have attended a number of inquests where that has happened. It is disgusting. That is all that you can say about it. That is why I qualified my remarks at the start for the Alliance Party: if there is any aspect of this where people or the police are being evasive, and where they are seen to be withholding or delaying the release of information, I respectfully ask that the Minister dutifully acts. For at least a decade, on a regular basis, the PSNI unlawfully trawled through the phone data of at least eight journalists, trying to identify their sources. Following their unlawful arrests in 2018, Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney were subjected to covert surveillance in a further bid to identify their source. The tribunal is also investigating two other instances of police surveillance against Mr McCaffrey in 2011 and 2013. The BBC has instructed lawyers to contact the tribunal about covert surveillance of Vincent Kearney in 2011, when he investigated the independence of the Police Ombudsman. Mr Kearney is now the Northern editor with RTÉ. The Policing Board has been left playing catch-up on this. It was not until September last year that the board asked the PSNI whether it had conducted surveillance of journalists or lawyers since 2011. It took the police eight months to produce a report that the Alliance Party representative on the board described as being "utterly vague". That report was produced by the Chief Constable only after the covert surveillance of journalists here was made public by the tribunal in London. It has been reported that as many as 10 journalists and 10 lawyers have been subjected to covert surveillance since 2011. How often, we do not know. The Policing Board is due to meet again this month to receive a further report on the extent of the surveillance of legal professionals and journalists. However, that meeting will not be held in public, and it is unlikely that the report will be made public. Also, it has to be said, it did not inspire confidence in the Policing Board when a senior member of Sinn Féin, who sits on the board, had a recent court ruling go against him for his own attempt to intimidate and silence journalists with a SLAPP. SLAPP, of course, is the acronym for strategic lawsuits against public participation, which is a tactic used by the rich and powerful to silence troublesome journalists. It would be understandable —

— if the public were sceptical about some parties' declaration of support for a free press.

Thank you.

920 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:36 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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