Surveillance: ‘Cautious welcome’ to Chief Constable commitment to provide answers on covert spying on media

Amnesty International and the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) have given a “cautious welcome” to a commitment from the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to the Northern Ireland Policing Board today (7 March) that he will provide answers within four weeks to their questions on police covert surveillance of journalists and others.

The Board has been waiting for more than six months for a response about secret surveillance of journalists in Northern Ireland.

Amnesty and the CAJ had written to the Policing Board asking it to launch an investigation into police spying on media in Northern Ireland following revelations from the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) in London that the police deployed covert surveillance on journalists on at least three occasions, in 2011, 2013 and 2018.

The Chief Constable, Jon Boutcher, committed to providing answers as requested, and said that the Board would not have to use its formal powers to force disclosure. He was responding to a question from Board member Les Allamby, who stated that the Board might need to exercise its formal powers, which exist under the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000, if the police did not provide an adequate and timely response to questions which they first put to the PSNI in September 2023.

Amnesty and CAJ fear that the pattern of covert and intrusive surveillance by the police against journalists, and potentially others such as lawyers and activists, goes much further than the incidents revealed so far at the IPT.

Responding to today’s Policing Board meeting, Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland Director, said:                                                                                                                                           

“Amnesty is extremely concerned that the evidence revealed to date at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal point to a much wider pattern of covert police surveillance of journalists.

“We give a cautious welcome to the commitment today. It’s high time that answers are finally provided to the Policing Board and we have full disclosure of the extent of secret surveillance against journalists and others. The Chief Constable has a real opportunity to be open with the public and to distance himself from the unlawful police practices of recent years.” 

Daniel Holder, Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), said:

“This is a real test for the present era of policing accountability both for the PSNI and the Policing Board with its duties to hold the police to account.

“Freedom of the press, including the fundamental of protecting sources, is a cornerstone of a democratic society protected by rights to freedom of expression under the ECHR.”