MI5 has conceded it “unlawfully” obtained the communications data of a former BBC journalist, in what was claimed to be an unprecedented admission from the security services.
The BBC said it was a “matter of grave concern” that the agency had obtained communications data from the mobile phone of Vincent Kearney, a former BBC Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent.
The admission came in a letter to the BBC and to Kearney, in relation to a tribunal examining claims that several reporters in Northern Ireland were subjected to unlawful scrutiny by the police.
It related to work carried out by Kearney for a documentary into the independence of the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI). Kearney is now the northern editor at Irish broadcaster RTE.
In documents submitted to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), MI5 conceded it obtained phone data from Kearney on two occasions in 2006 and 2009.
Jude Bunting KC, representing Kearney and the BBC, told a hearing on Monday: “The MI5 now confirms publicly that in 2006 and 2009 MI5 obtained communications data in relation to Vincent Kearney.”
He said the security service accepted it had breached Kearney’s rights under article 8 and article 10 of the European convention on human rights. They relate to the right to private correspondence and the right to impart information without interference from public authorities.
“This appears to be the first time in any tribunal proceedings in which MI5 publicly accept interference with a journalist’s communications data, and also publicly accept that they acted unlawfully in doing so,” Bunting said.
He claimed the concessions that it accessed the journalist’s data represented “serious and sustained illegality on the part of MI5”.
A BBC spokesperson said: “MI5’s admission that it illegally obtained communications data of a BBC journalist is a matter of grave concern. It raises serious and important questions that we will continue to pursue.”
Bunting told the tribunal that police forces had also made admissions about obtaining Kearney’s communications data from 2012. He said they admitted storing it and then handing some of it on to Durham constabulary in 2018.
The tribunal heard the force’s authorisations related to its investigations into the murder of police officer Stephen Carroll in 2009 and to an investigation into the leak of information from the PONI.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland director, said the disclosure from MI5 was “profoundly alarming”.
“A journalist’s right to protect their sources is not a luxury, it is the bedrock of a free and fearless press,” he said. “This is not just about one journalist, it is about the public’s right to know the truth.
“What is now urgently required is full transparency, genuine accountability and an end to this pattern of unlawful intrusion.”
Kearney took legal action following information that emerged in the case of journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney.
In a landmark judgment last year, the IPT found the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Metropolitan police had unlawfully carried out covert surveillance on the two Belfast-based journalists.
Details disclosed in that case suggested that public bodies, including police forces, had spied on Kearney. At the time, McCaffrey and Birney said they believed there was “no doubt” reporters continue to be targeted in the UK.
The pair were wrongfully arrested in 2018 after they produced No Stone Unturned, an award-winning documentary alleging collusion between police and loyalist paramilitaries in a notorious Troubles massacre.
