The Investigatory Powers Tribunal has today handed down judgment in a claim brought by the BBC and Vincent Kearney over the unlawful accessing of Mr Kearney’s communications data by a number of law enforcement bodies.
The IPT has ordered MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland to pay £10,000 in damages to the journalist Vincent Kearney, as a result of multiple unlawful authorisations to access his mobile phone’s communications data over the course of many years. At the time, Mr Kearney was the BBC Northern Ireland Home Affairs Correspondent and was also working for BBC Spotlight. It is believed to be the first time that MI5 has been ordered to pay damages to a journalist in respect of covert access to their communications data.
The claim brought by the BBC and Mr Kearney concerned seven separate police or MI5 operations through which MI5, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Metropolitan Police Service and Durham Constabulary unlawfully acquired the BBC and Mr Kearney’s confidential communications data between 2006 and 2018. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal found that the authorisations, which were aimed at identifying journalistic sources, were unlawful (as the law enforcement bodies had conceded) and also disproportionate, concluding they were unlawful interferences with both Mr Kearney’s Article 8 and Article 10 ECHR rights and also the BBC’s own Article 10 rights.
The judgment contains a clear and helpful summary on the law on the protection of confidential journalistic sources at paragraphs 4 to 9.
Jonathan Scherbel-Ball, instructed by Ciaran O’Shiel of A&L Goodbody, acted for the BBC and Mr Kearney, led by Jude Bunting KC.
