Vincent Kearney

Vincent Kearney has been awarded a total of £20,000 (€23,000) in damages.

LAST UPDATE | 23 Jul

FORMER BBC JOURNALIST Vincent Kearney has been awarded a total of £20,000 (€23,000) in damages from MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) after the bodies unlawfully obtained his data.

The security service previously admitted it breached the rights of Kearney, now the Northern Ireland editor at RTÉ, when obtaining the data.

The PSNI and Metropolitan Police also made concessions during proceedings brought by Kearney at the IPT.

In a judgment on Thursday, three judges at the IPT awarded Kearney £10,000 (€12,000) in damages from the PSNI and the same award against MI5, finding there was “no reason to distinguish between the conduct” of the two organisations.

Speaking at the RTÉ offices in Belfast, he told the Press Association: “This reinforces the right of journalists to protect their information and to protect their sources.

“Because at the heart of the story was an illegal attempt by the police and by MI5 to try to identify sources who provided information to me for stories, sources who I promised to protect, and then, unknown to me, the PSNI and MI5 were using illegal means to undermine those promises that I had given people, to try to identify those sources, so I think this is very, very significant.”

He said the ruling was “setting a very clear signal” that “organisations that are supposed to uphold the law can’t be above the law”.

“Going forward I think that could be significant because it does send a strong message to the police and to other law enforcement agencies, and perhaps paves a way for other journalists to take similar action if they’ve been targeted in the same way because I’ve no doubt they have been,” Kearney said.

“There’s no way that I was the only journalist in Northern Ireland that was being targeted in this fashion.”

Ailsa Carmichael, Mr Justice Chamberlain and Stephen Shaw KC said that “the interferences in this case were numerous, and took place over a period of years”.

The judges continued: “The heightened protection provided to journalists is not for the benefit of the journalist personally, but for the public interest in the ability of his readers or audience to receive information from him.”

Kearney brought legal action after reports that documents in the case of documentary makers Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney had suggested that public bodies, including police forces, had spied on Kearney.

At a hearing in February, Jude Bunting KC, for Kearney and the BBC, said there were seven separate police or MI5 operations where the intelligence services or forces unlawfully obtained the journalist’s or broadcaster’s confidential communications data between 2006 and 2018.

The tribunal in London was told that the PSNI had made a “detailed profile” of the journalist, including his date of birth, addresses, car details, phone numbers and the names of his wife and mother-in-law, as well as an “extensive review” of his published work.

Bunting said Kearney should receive “substantial” damages.

Cathryn McGahey KC, for the PSNI, said the force had made “a number of clear and extensive concessions”.

The barrister said in written submissions that “the interferences in question were directed at the acquisition of communications data associated with an individual journalist, rather than at the BBC’s editorial autonomy, premises, systems, or journalistic archives”.

McGahey continued that while the force did not object to the tribunal ruling that the PSNI breached Kearney and the BBC’s rights, it opposed the journalist being awarded damages as it would be unnecessary “to award just satisfaction”.

‘Deeply concerning’

In a statement following the ruling, Deirdre McCarthy, managing director of RTÉ News and Current Affairs remarked that the “protection of journalist sources is the cornerstone of ensuring a free and independent media”.

She said the “scale of the covert surveillance and accessing of Vincent Kearney’s communications data by British security and policing agencies has been deeply concerning”.

McCarthy said the ruling “highlights the extent of the intrusion and covert gathering of communications data of confidential sources over many years” and that what was heard in evidence ”is of deep concern for us as journalists and media working in the public interest”.

She said that RTÉ will “protect public interest journalism, enabling journalists to report stories without fear and undermining of their work”.

“This is particularly significant in relation to security and legacy issues in Northern Ireland,” McCarthy added.

Meanwhile, PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher said he accepts the findings.

He said he has the “utmost respect” for Kearney and added: “I wish to place on record my sincere apologies to Mr Kearney in this matter.”

He said “significant changes to practice and policy have already been made since these issues occurred”.

Boutcher added: “As a result of public concerns, I commissioned an independent review of PSNI’s covert authorisations by appointing Angus McCullough KC who had full and unfettered access to all material.”

He said the report’s recommendations, together with the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office statutory oversight and inspections, will ensure the “recognised independence of journalism and the freedom of the press is proportionality balanced against any lawful and overriding law enforcement requirement”.

“As a Police Service we are committed to ensuring that we learn from mistakes when they are made,” said Boutcher.

“We are committed to transparency and using the powers available to us in a way that is lawful and in the public interest.”

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper