news Police used reporters’ data to trap sources


POLICE in Northern Ireland tried to identify journalists’ sources 21 times through unlawful uses of covert powers – twice the figure previously disclosed. The 200-page report by Angus McCullough KC into the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) found they used reporters’ phone numbers to identify information leaks by its staff. However, McCullough


reported that the PSNI’s surveillance of journalists was not ‘widespread or systemic’. The review also raised


‘significant concerns’ about PSNI trawling its records in “an untargeted wholesale attempt to identify unauthorised contact between PSNI personnel and journalists”. The NUJ has called for a wider investigation into the surveillance of journalists in the province after it emerged that the security service MI5 illegally obtained data from the mobile phone of former BBC Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent Vincent Kearney. MI5 admitted obtaining


data from Kearney’s phone on two occasions in 2006


and 2009 in documents submitted to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. The case arose after reports


in separate proceedings involving journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney (pictured), who were subjected to surveillance by the police in Northern Ireland, suggested that public bodies, including police forces, had also monitored Kearney. Kearney, who is now RTÉ


News’ northern editor, said his legal inquiries, backed by the BBC, would try to establish as much detail as possible about the two instances of unlawful intrusion, and would also seek to determine whether there had been any more such incidents. Kearney described the


admission by MI5 as ‘unprecedented’ and said it was ‘deeply concerning’ for himself and other journalists. Séamus Dooley, the NUJ’s


assistant general secretary, said: “These revelations are within a deeply worrying pattern of the authorities’ surveillance of journalists. “They raise fundamental issues of concern regarding


What a nerve


A GROUP of former senior women Observer journalists have launched a culture-focused publication which is partly funded by their redundancy pay-outs following the Observer’s sale to Tortoise Media in March. The Nerve will begin as a twice-weekly newsletter through Beehiiv, a rival to the Substack platform. It is planned that it will become a full website next year and that it will also produce a print publication twice a year. The group of five journalists includes Carole


Cadwalladr who was a high-profile critic of the sale of The Observer to the loss-making start-up Tortoise.


The Nerve, so called because the team “


the role of MI5 that must be explored to ensure they do not evade scrutiny. “The damage done by


covert surveillance to the trust and confidence in MI5 and other bodies cannot be overstated. Journalists will be alarmed by yet another unacceptable case of intrusion.” A BBC spokesperson


commented: “MI5’s admission that it illegally obtained communications data of a BBC journalist is a matter of grave concern. “It raises serious and


believes that nerve is the key quality needed in the world as it is now, is led by Sarah Donaldson, former deputy editor of Observer New Review and digital editor of The Observer. The other founders are former Observer New Review editor Jane Ferguson, former Observer creative director Lynsey Irvine, and former New Review senior editor Imogen Carter.


Michael Sheen, the


actor and activist, will be one of the contributing


editors along with the broadcaster Carol Vorderman, Brian Eno, the musician and activist and Peter Geoghegan, the investigative journalist who was editor-in-chief of Open Democracy. Contributing writers include reporter John Sweeney, film critic and broadcaster Ellen E Jones, freelance journalist and arts critic Kadish Morris.


important questions that we will continue to pursue.” Birney has also called for a public inquiry into surveillance, saying: “We welcome what MI5 have done here in finally coming clean, but this is only the tip of the iceberg, and the question now is how much of the iceberg are we actually going to see.” Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty


International’s Northern Ireland director, said: “The right of a journalist to protect their confidential sources is the bedrock on which the free press is built.”


THE NERVE


This is only the tip of the iceberg, and the question now is how much of the iceberg are we actually going to see


Trevor Birney Journalist


Founders of The Nerve, from left to right: Lynsey Irvine, Sarah Donaldson, Carole Cadwalladr, Jane Ferguson and Imogen Carter.


theJournalist | 05


VUK VALCIC / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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