The Investigatory Powers Tribunal heard today that the security service has conceded that it unlawfully monitored the phone data of former BBC Spotlight reporter Vincent Kearney
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal heard today that the security service has conceded that it unlawfully monitored the phone data of former BBC Spotlight reporter Vincent Kearney
The Security Service MI5 has admitted to unlawfully spying on the phone of former BBC investigative journalist Vincent Kearney.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) heard today that the security service has made a last-minute concession that it unlawfully monitored the phone of the former BBC Spotlight reporter.
Jude Bunting KC, representing the BBC and Kearney, who now works for RTÉ, told the tribunal that MI5 had conceded that it unlawfully accessed Kearney’s communications data in 2006 and 2009. It passed the data on to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
“This appears to be the first time in any tribunal proceedings that MI5 has accepted any interference with journalists’ communications data and publicly accepted doing so unlawfully,” he said.
The BBC and Kearney are bringing a legal challenge against the PSNI, Durham Constabulary, the Metropolitan Police and the UK government over allegations that police and MI5 unlawfully spied on the phones of BBC journalists working in Northern Ireland.
The court heard that MI5 belatedly disclosed its role on Wednesday last week, despite knowing about the issue for years, and knowing that its late disclosure would impact court hearings already scheduled in the case.
Bunting said that MI5 failed to reference Kearney as a journalist when it monitored his phone data, and did not take into account stricter tests required to access journalistic information.
MI5 accepted that the security service breached Kearney’s Article 10 and 8 rights under the European Convention of Human Rights, which protect the rights of journalists to protect their confidential sources, and their right to privacy.PSNI admits unlawfully monitoring phones
The Police Service of Northern Ireland also conceded it acted unlawfully by issuing authorisations to obtain Kearney’s communications data on multiple occasions.
This included four authorisations relating to an investigation into the murder of PC Stephen Caroll in 2009, and multiple operations linked to Operation Erewhon – an investigation into alleged leaks from the Office of the Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland – in 2012.
