Ex-BBC journalist awarded £20,000 after MI5 and PSNI unlawfully accessed phone data

Vincent Kearney was subjected to unlawful covert intelligence gathering when he was the BBC’s Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA View image in fullscreen Vincent Kearney was subjected to unlawful covert intelligence gathering when he was the BBC’s Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Ex-BBC journalist awarded £20,000 after MI5 and PSNI unlawfully accessed phone data Tribunal rules surveillance aimed at identifying Vincent Kearney’s sources was disproportionate and unlawful A former BBC journalist has been awarded £20,000 in damages after MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland unlawfully obtained data from his mobile phone. A specialist tribunal on Thursday ordered the agencies to pay the compensation to Vincent Kearney for attempts to identify his sources while he was the BBC’s Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent. The investigatory powers tribunal (IPT), a special court that investigates complaints against the UK’s spy agencies, said the surveillance had been disproportionate, not in accordance with the law and ordered each agency to pay Kearney £10,000. “The heightened protection provided to journalists is not for the benefit of the journalist personally, but for the public interest in the ability of his readers or audience to receive information from him,” three judges, Lady Carmichael, Mr Justice Chamberlain and Stephen Shaw KC, said in the ruling. Lawyers for Kearney and the BBC said there were seven separate police or MI5 operations that unlawfully obtained Kearney’s confidential communications data between 2006 and 2018. The PSNI ran four operations and created a “profile” of Kearney that included car registrations and the names of his wife and mother-in-law. The monitoring enabled the security agencies to see numbers in contact with Kearney and the time of calls and texts, though not their content. Other data revealed subscriber names and addresses of caller numbers. In one operation, the tribunal heard, the PSNI obtained information relating to 1,580 calls or texts. Kearney, now the northern editor of the Irish broadcaster RTÉ, said the ruling was a victory for journalism and an affirmation of the duty and legal rights of journalists to protect sources. “The fact that the court decided to award damages reflects the seriousness of the case,” he said. “The judges make clear that the impact of the illegal activities on me, and on the trust that potential sources can place in the confidentiality of their communications with me, was an important factor in their decision to award damages.” A BBC spokesperson said the case raised issues of grave concern not just to the corporation but wider society. They said: “Journalistic freedoms are a basic part of how democracies work. Their importance is recognised in law and matters to all of us. “What happened in this instance was wrong and must never be repeated. It caused harm to a journalist, jeopardised trust