Northern Ireland: IFJ condemns MI5’s illegal surveillance of journalists

The British security service, MI5, has admitted that it illegally obtained communications data from the mobile phone of former BBC Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent Vincent Kearney. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), in expressing its deep concern about the illegal surveillance of journalists in Northern Ireland and the breach of confidentiality of journalists' sources.

The MI5 admission was made in documents submitted to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the UK body that handles complaints about surveillance by public authorities, including intelligence services.

In the documents submitted, MI5 admitted that it had obtained communications data from Vincent Kearney's phone on two occasions, in 2006 and 2009. It is the first time that MI5 has publicly admitted unlawful interference with a journalist's communication data.

The NUJ's assistant General Secretary, Séamus Dooley, said: "These revelations are of grave concern and are part of a deeply worrying pattern of the authorities' surveillance of journalists. They raise fundamental issues of concern regarding the role of MI5 that must be explored to ensure that they do not evade scrutiny."

For the IFJ, this direct intrusion in journalists' communications also constitutes a blatant violation of the fundamental right to protect journalistic sources, a cornerstone of press freedom and democracy.

The IFJ's General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: "Journalists should never be targeted by intelligence services. Unfortunately, MI5's admission reveals a deeply troubling trend: spying on reporters, which undermines press freedom and the key principle of confidentiality of sources. We demand robust safeguards to ensure that such practices are never repeated.