Sir, – Your editorial (“The Irish Times view on the surveillance of journalists: worrying trends”, August 3rd) highlights a deeply disturbing issue: the 12-year campaign of illegal eavesdropping by the PSNI and MI5 on Vincent Kearney, formerly the BBC’s home affairs editor in Northern Ireland and now Northern Editor for RTÉ News.
First, it is shocking that both the PSNI and the British security service unlawfully monitored an editor employed by their own state broadcaster.
Second, one must ask how many other journalists and politicians – north and south of the Border – are being targeted?
Kearney only discovered the covert monitoring after the IPT ruled that police unlawfully spied on Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey following their documentary on the 1994 Loughinisland massacre. Worryingly, BBC Spotlight has now revealed that the PSNI also allegedly accessed the phone of former BBC security editor Brian Rowan.
READ MORE
Third, are G2 and An Garda Síochána aware of the extent of any such illegal surveillance taking place in this jurisdiction?
More significantly perhaps, do Irish authorities ever avail of such information gathered unlawfully as a basis for investigations or prosecutions?
In addition to the judge-led inquiry in Northern Ireland demanded by the National Union of Journalists, urgent questions should be put directly to both the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner. – Yours, etc,
LEO E SHARKEY,
Bratislava 85101,
Slovakia.
