{"id":316973,"date":"2026-02-25T19:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/316973\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T19:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:28:07","slug":"psni-and-mi5-unlawfully-obtained-phone-data-of-prominent-northern-ireland-journalist-tribunal-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/316973\/","title":{"rendered":"PSNI and MI5 unlawfully obtained phone data of prominent Northern Ireland journalist, tribunal hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Police Service of Northern Ireland<\/a> (PSNI), MI5<\/a> and the Metropolitan Police<\/a> unlawfully obtained the phone data of a prominent Northern Ireland<\/a> journalist in multiple operations over a period of more than 10 years, a tribunal has heard. <\/p>\n

Vincent Kearney was wrongly referred to as a \u201csuspect\u201d in a criminal investigation and the PSNI complied a detailed profile of intelligence material on him and his family \u2013 including his date of birth, phone numbers, car registrations, the names of his wife and mother-in-law, and his mother-in-law\u2019s address. <\/p>\n

On one occasion in 2013, the PSNI obtained and kept information on more than 1,580 calls and texts made and received by Kearney over a two-week period. <\/p>\n

The details were revealed on Wednesday during a case taken by Kearney and his former employer, the BBC<\/a>, at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPC), an independent judicial body which deals with complaints regarding the unlawful use of covert investigative techniques by public authorities. <\/p>\n

Kearney is currently Northern editor for RT\u00c9 News but was previously home affairs editor at the BBC in Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n

In written submissions, barrister Jude Bunting, representing Kearney and the BBC, said the disclosed documents revealed they had been subjected \u201cto a long and consistent campaign of unlawful interference with their confidential journalistic material\u201d. <\/p>\n

He told the tribunal, \u201cWe have seven different occasions in which very significant material at very significant volumes and time periods … obtained by multiple different state bodies. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn each and every one of those occasions it wasn\u2019t in accordance with the law, and on each and every one of those occasions it was disproportionate. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe material we\u2019ve seen demonstrates an unhealthy interest in journalists at the heart of the PSNI.\u201d <\/p>\n

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The general secretary of the National Union of Journalists<\/a>, Laura Davison, told the BBC the body \u201cneed to know\u201d whether other journalists have been affected. She called for \u201ca full public inquiry into surveillance into journalists in Northern Ireland\u201d. <\/p>\n

Kearney and the BBC complained to the IPC after reports the journalist had been targeted by the PSNI, MI5, Durham Constabulary and the Metropolitan Police. The hearing began in London on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

MI5 admitted last year it had \u201cunlawfully\u201d obtained Kearney\u2019s communications data<\/a> between 2006 and 2009. <\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Police conceded it unlawfully obtained his data in 2012, while Durham Constabulary said it acted lawfully in retaining documents following a PSNI-commissioned operation from 2017-2018. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Bunting outlined a minimum of seven separate operations carried out by MI5, the PSNI and the Metropolitan Police between 2006 and 2018 in which Kearney\u2019s confidential phone data was obtained, which he said were \u201call … conceded to be unlawful\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said they were \u201cdisproportionate\u201d, failed take into account the need for an overriding requirement in the public interest, and were aimed at identifying Kearney\u2019s sources. <\/p>\n

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These included four applications by the PSNI for Kearney\u2019s phone data following his receipt of a call from the Continuity IRA claiming responsibility for the 2009 murder of PSNI officer Stephen Carroll. <\/p>\n

In 2013, the PSNI applied for Kearney\u2019s incoming and outgoing calls and subscriber details as part of Operation Samarium \u2013 which looked at allegations that a senior member of the PSNI\u2019s management had received corrupt payments \u2013 and made the \u201cfalse assertion\u201d, the barrister said, that Kearney was a suspect and the information was needed \u201cto identify the suspect and other criminal associates\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t a criminal. He wasn\u2019t the suspect. His contacts weren\u2019t criminal associates,\u201d Bunting said. <\/p>\n

Outlining the impact of the surveillance on Kearney, the barrister said that for a \u201cless experienced journalist, they would have been career-ending\u201d, they had \u201cmaterially affected his ability to work\u201d, and had affected his employer and his family. <\/p>\n

Listing numerous sources who \u201cwon\u2019t speak to him any longer\u201d, he cited one \u201cwho said he was an MI5 tout … being called an MI5 tout in Northern Ireland is something which can pose a serious risk of harm\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said Kearney should be awarded \u201csubstantial\u201d damages. <\/p>\n

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The barrister for the PSNI, Cathryn McGahey, said the force \u201creadily accepted the unlawfulness of what occurred\u201d.<\/p>\n

PSNI officers \u201cwere acting in good faith\u201d, she said, and \u201cno one had any reason to believe they were acting unlawfully\u201d because they were acting in accordance with the relevant code of practice. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn each case, the PSNI were investigating serious criminality\u201d and, in the case of the murder of Stephen Carroll, \u201cthe most serious criminality\u201d.<\/p>\n

The barrister added that the police had \u201cconceded without question the remedies of a declaration of unlawfulness, deletion of the material\u201d and an undertaking to confirm when it had been carried out. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese applications and authorisations do not provide any indication of a campaign against a journalist or journalists,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The case will continue in a closed hearing on Thursday, with a ruling expected in the next few months. <\/p>\n

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Speaking in advance of Wednesday\u2019s hearing, Kearney said the case \u201chas established that I was the target of a systematic and years-long pattern of law enforcement agencies illegally accessing my journalistic sources and mapping my professional activity\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was treated as a suspect rather than a journalist,\u201d he said. \u201cThe concessions made reveal repeated and consistent illegality on the part of multiple public authorities over a period of many years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis was taking place on an almost annual basis between 2006 and 2014 while I worked as a correspondent for BBC Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has had a chilling effect on my ability to conduct public interest journalism, with source relationships damaged and, in some cases, destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unlawful activities of those charged with upholding the law have irrevocably damaged my ability to perform my lawful duties as a journalist. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose responsible must be held to account and mechanisms put in place to ensure this kind of activity cannot be repeated.\u201d <\/p>\n

A BBC spokesperson said the \u201cextent and effect of unlawful interference in Vincent Kearney\u2019s work as a BBC journalist is a matter of serious concern\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt strikes at the heart of the protections that are in place for public interest journalism … what happened in this instance was wrong and must never be repeated.\u201d <\/p>\n

The managing director of RT\u00c9 News and Current Affairs, Deirdre McCarthy, said, \u201cThe scale of the covert surveillance and accessing of journalist Vincent Kearney\u2019s communications data by British security and policing agencies is deeply concerning. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs an all-island public service media organisation, RT\u00c9 places ongoing importance on defending press freedom of journalists across Ireland. The protection of journalist sources is the cornerstone of ensuring a free and independent media.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), MI5 and the Metropolitan Police unlawfully obtained the phone data of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1578,61,60,6238,101041,73428,43,2443,21754,6085],"class_list":["post-316973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-bbc","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-metropolitan-police","tag-mi5","tag-national-union-of-journalists","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland-psni","tag-rte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}