Deep concerns at email ‘breach’ in INM papers
THE press ombudsman has told of his ‘deep concern’ over the alleged harvesting of journalists’ emails at newspaper giant Independent News & Media (INM), saying it could ‘undermine’ investigative journalism.
Peter Feeney said the alleged actions at the company that owns the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent and Evening Herald could help to undermine investigative journalism.
He added that senior editorial staff would feel ‘badly let down’ if it transpired that their employer was reading reporters’ emails.
His comments come after the State’s Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon said she will launch an investigation into claims that email records may have been taken out of the jurisdiction and ‘interrogated’ by at least six companies.
Mr Feeney told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland: ‘It is deeply disturbing that communications between journalists and third parties can be accessed and used for purposes other than for which they originated.
‘This gets to the core of investigative journalism, in the sense that it endangers the confidentiality which a journalist may guarantee someone if he or she is giving them information which may be important to bring into the public domain. It undermines investigative journalism and therefore it is a deep, deep concern.
‘Not just journalism will suffer, it’s Irish society will suffer because the Fourth Estate role of journalism, investigating those in authority and those in power, is undermined if confidentiality is threatened.’
However, Mr Feeney said it is probably premature to speculate about what happened as there are two inquiries taking place.
He said: ‘It appears to me – and this is just speculation – that this interrogation of emails was not known by senior editorial managers in Independent papers, they themselves must feel badly let down by what has happened.’
The Data Protection Commissioner is to launch an inquiry into the alleged breach of data of 19 people connected to INM, including senior barristers Jacqueline O’Brien and Jerry Healy, who represented the Moriarty Tribunal, and highprofile journalists, such as Sam Smyth and Brendan O’Connor.
The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, which is seeking the appointment of inspectors to investigate corporate governance at INM, made the claims in an affidavit filed with the
‘Not just journalism will suffer’
High Court. The case is due to be heard on April 16.
The State’s corporate watchdog also claims to have uncovered a series of text messages it says were sent to former INM chairman Leslie Buckley by John Henry, chief executive of a company called Special Security Services Limited, the Irish Independent reported.
Ireland’s Director of Corporate Enforcement, Ian Drennan, claims the email harvesting was directed by Mr Buckley and he believes Mr Henry ran the examination of INM’s IT back-up tapes, it was reported.
Mr Buckley has previously told the High Court that Specialist Security Services ran certain security operations for him and that Mr Henry was the person who initially introduced him to Derek Mizak, another IT expert, in order to assist with what Mr Buckley described as a ‘cost-reduction exercise’ at INM.
Mr Drennan brings attention to a series of text messages sent by Mr Henry to Mr Buckley which, he says, appear to contradict Mr Buckley’s assertion, to a special committee set up by INM, that ‘nothing at all was found’ in the course of electronic searches of data, the Irish Independent reported. The text messages allegedly reference an INM email archive labelled ‘JW’.
‘Just looking at JW archive mailbox with mails going back to 1999 !!!! Yuppiee!!!,’ wrote Mr Henry in a text message sent to Mr Buckley on October 13, 2014, the Irish Independent reported. ‘Will have 39,354 jw emails,’ wrote Mr Henry, sending a later text which read: ‘Making some progress. Have solution to get stuff out as well. Got tapes. Talk later’. Mr Drennan, in the affidavit, claims the email and text communications between Mr Buckley and Mr Henry make it clear Mr Henry ‘was, for all practical purposes, running the data interrogation’, the Irish Independent reported.
Mr Drennan alleges it is evident there was ‘regular contact between Mr Henry and the chairman [Mr Buckley] for the purpose of keeping the latter apprised of the project progress and of any difficulties arising’.
When the Irish Daily Mail contacted Mr Buckley this week a spokesman replied: ‘It is not appropriate to comment as a review process is under way.’ Mr Henry was unavailable to comment when contacted by the Mail yesterday.