Ireland’s prime minister, Enda Kenny, has taken a strong line with the country’s police watchdog after it was revealed that the body accessed journalists’ phone records.
According to the Irish Times, he indicated that it might be necessary to change legislation in order to limit the powers of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC).
The paper, in company with the Irish Independent, reported Kenny as saying: “Clearly the fundamental principle of journalistic sources being confidential is very important in a democracy.”
After a week of controversy about the matter, which I reported on yesterday, the Dublin government is planning to review the GSOC’s powers.
It followed revelations in the Irish Times that the GSOC had viewed two journalists’ phone records without their knowledge or consent.
Kenny said his justice minister, Frances Fitzgerald, was looking at the issue on “the basis of the protection of the sources of information for journalists in a free world, in a free press”.
It is thought that a senior lawyer, possibly a judge, will be asked to consider international best practice and then review the operation of Ireland’s communications (retention of data) act of 2011. It was that law that the GSOC relied on when accessing phone records.
Sources: Irish Times/Irish Independent
