NEW: Policing Board requests urgent meeting with Office of the Chief Constable Jon Boutcher on police covert surveillance of journalists and lawyers.

It's time for the NI Policing Board to establish a public inquiry. There must be full disclosure and full accountability.

Insightful perceptive video report by ⁦alex thomson⁩ for ⁦Channel 4 News⁩ on the Investigatory Powers Tribunal application brought by ⁦Trevor Birney⁩ and ⁦barry mccaffrey #achtanois #AnDreamDearg⁩

#JournalismIsNotACrime

⁦Amnesty Int'l NI⁩ ⁦CAJ⁩

channel4.com/news/northern-…

Patrick and Amnesty Int'l NI as well as Daniel and CAJ have been with us every step of the way. We owe them both a great debt of gratitude and thank them for their defence of press freedom. barry mccaffrey #achtanois #AnDreamDearg KRW Law Human Rights John Finucane MP

If you’re a NI journalist in who fears they may have been targetted by PSNI for covert surveillance, we advise you to lodge a complaint with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.

Amnesty & CAJ are talking to NUJ to ensure template letters and legal advice can be offered.

This notably also states that at the time of the Loughinisland investigation the PSNI (who have duties to make full disclosure) only gave the Police Ombudsman information that 'suited' the PSNI.

irishnews.com/news/northern-…

PSNI routinely accessed phone data of ‘troublemaker’ journalists, tribunal told.

Barry McCaffrey was one of the journalists who was arrested in connection to their work investigating the 1994 Loughinisland massacre.

Speaking after the tribunal he addressed the new evidence.

Huge thanks to John Finucane MP KRW Law Human Rights CAJ Amnesty Int'l NI RSF Colum Eastwood for supporting Trevor Birney and I in highlighting PSNI industrial spying operation against journalists. Every journalist in NI needs to ask if they’ve been spied on by PSNI #JournalismisNOTaCrime

The PSNI accessed the phone records of a group of Northern Ireland journalists every six months, according
to new disclosure to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal barry mccaffrey #achtanois #AnDreamDearg Trevor Birney

Our editor Trevor Birney and former senior journalist Barry McCaffrey are at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today for a landmark hearing by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal into police surveillance against them. Here's the background 👇

thedetail.tv/articles/how-t…

CAJ & Amnesty Int'l NI NUJ back at Investigatory Powers Tribunal today with barry mccaffrey #achtanois #AnDreamDearg Trevor Birney

Little doubt indeed - SoS Brandon Lewis himself expressly linked the 'official history' as 'supporting' the other provisions in the legacy act at Westminster-
Hansard 22-5-24 column 185
hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2022-0…
Pat Finucane Centre Anna Bryson Marie Coleman
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/commen…

Link to the Thompson (No. 1) judgment [2024] NIKB 18, Humphreys J: judiciaryni.uk/judicial-decis…

CAJ acts for the next of kin 8/8

This happened in the backdrop of a legally enforceable obligation (disclosure). What is the obligation on the UKG towards historians in this context? And maybe it's fair to be sceptical and expect such an obligation/promise to be ... creatively interpreted by the UKG? 7/

The PSNI accepted the High Court judgment. The SoSNI appealed it in the Court of Appeal - and lost again. Now it's headed to the Supreme Court. 6/

The Coroner decided that the public interest in disclosure outweighed the risk of disclosing the info in 1/7 folders, and even then ordered a gist, not the info itself. The SoSNI+PSNI challenged that order in the High Court - and lost 5/

In the Thompson Inquest, the Coroner upheld the PII claim over 6/7 folders and ordered a gist of info contained in the 7th folder. A gist is a summary of relevant information, minus anything that would harm the public interest (e.g. names). 4/

PII is an exception to the general duty to disclose relevant materials in legal proceedings. PII claims that disclosure would harm the public interest. If the court upholds that claim, disclosure does not occur. 3/

Liam Paul Thompson was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1994. The inquest into his death opened in 1995. In *2024* it was still ongoing. The PSNI and SoSNI made applications for public interest immunity (PII) over 7 folders of documents 2/

I'm not a historian, but let's see what the UKG's track record is for disclosing relevant documents under a *general legal obligation* to do so. The Thompson Inquest. 1/