The UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) found in a landmark ruling Tuesday that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and London’s Metropolitan Police Service broke the law and breached the human rights of two Northern Ireland journalists, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey. The ruling pertained to a covert surveillance operation authorized by a Northern Ireland police chief in a bid to unmask a journalistic source, which the IPT ruled was unlawful. 

The IPT, which is the only British court with statutory powers to investigate secret police surveillance, ruled that the PSNI had repeatedly acted unlawfully in its attempts to uncover the journalists’ sources. The tribunal found that the PSNI had accessed the journalists’ telephone communications data and had shared this information with other police forces.

The judgment also criticized the then Chief Constable of the PSNI, George Hamilton, for authorizing a spying operation against an official at the Office of the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland. The tribunal described his decision as “unlawful at common law” and in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998.

As a result of the ruling, the IPT has quashed the authorization by the Chief Constable and ordered the PSNI to pay damages to the journalists for unlawful intrusion. This is the first time that the tribunal has made such an order.

The case relates to the arrest of Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey in 2018 in connection with their investigation into the 1994 Loughinisland massacre. The pair had filed a complaint with the IPT after a court in Belfast ruled that their arrests were unlawful.

Amnesty International has welcomed the ruling, describing it as a “landmark case for press freedom.” The organization’s Northern Ireland Director, Patrick Corrigan, said, “The right of journalists to protect their sources is a cornerstone of a free society, and the PSNI saw fit to ride roughshod over every human rights safeguard designed to protect that right.”

Corrigan also called for full disclosure by the PSNI of all instances of its abuse of surveillance powers against journalists and others. He said, “Accountability must follow culpability, and we now need cast-iron safeguards to prevent the PSNI from further abuse of covert surveillance powers.”

The ruling has also raised concerns about police oversight in Northern Ireland. Corrigan said, “The revelation that the PSNI spied on staff from the Office of the Police Ombudsman should worry everyone who cares about policing and police oversight. Conservative MP David Davis noted the case “is one of the most dramatic and far-ranging decisions I’ve ever heard from the Tribunal.”