SF man who sued two journalists to ask PSNI why it is trying to silence media
A SENIOR Sinn Fein MLA who unsuccessfully sued two journalists recently said yesterday that he is “seeking a meeting with the Chief Constable on attempts to silence journalists”.
Gerry Kelly was speaking after the Policing Board requested an “urgent” meeting with the PSNI amid revelations a number of Nibased journalists were subject to routine police surveillance.
Mr Kelly is also a member the Policing Board.
In January, Mr Kelly sued Belfast Telegraph columnist Malachi O’doherty for writing that Mr Kelly shot a prison officer during the IRA Maze escape in 1983.
But the case — known as a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) — was dismissed as “scandalous, frivolous and vexatious”.
A similar case Mr Kelly took against another journalist, Ruth Dudley Edwards, was later settled. Details of the surveillance were revealed in documents released as part of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), sitting at the Royal Court of Justice on Wednesday. The court heard that the PSNI was engaging in six-monthly trawls of phone data belonging to eight journalists in NI. Now the Policing Board has requested a meeting with PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher to discuss the revelations.
The board will “seek further clarification and assurance around whether surveillance powers have been used lawfully, proportionately and appropriately in the past”.
“At the June Board meeting, the Board’s Human Rights Advisor John Wadham will also provide Members with an assessment on whether authorisation policies and procedures were correctly adhered to,” said a spokesperson.
The IPT is examining allegations that two investigative reporters in Northern Ireland were subject to unlawful covert intelligence by police as part of Operation Yurta. Evidence presented to the tribunal suggested that the PSNI spying operation extended to six other reporters in Northern Ireland.
The documents show the surveillance started in 2007/8 and went on for a decade, involving a small group of journalists who were, in the words of one detective, “always looking for a story”.
Documents seen by the Belfast Telegraph show eight redacted names of those under apparent surveillance by the PSNI.
Documentary makers Barry Mccaffrey and Trevor Birney were controversially arrested in 2018 by police investigating the alleged leaking of confidential documents that appeared in a film they made about the Loughinisland Massacre. The PSNI was later forced to apologise and agreed to pay £875,000 in damages to the journalists and the film company behind the documentary No Stone Unturned.
In 2019, Mr Birney and Mr Mccaffrey lodged a complaint with the IPT asking it to establish whether there had been any unlawful surveillance of them.
In a statement, Mr Kelly said Sinn Fein would also be seeking a meeting with Mr Boutcher.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that police and British state bodies have gone to extreme lengths to monitor and silence journalists rather than deal with the allegations of collusion and police corruption which journalists have shone a light on,” he said. “We are deeply concerned about this week’s revelations and we will be pressing the Chief Constable for answers on the PSNI’S involvement in these tactics,” he said.