The NUJ has condemned the failure of the Northern Ireland police to disclose two covert surveillance operations against journalists to the UK’s independent surveillance watchdog, in breach of their statutory obligations https://www.nuj.org.uk/resource/surveillance-operations-withheld-by-police-service-of-northern-ireland.html.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) kept inspectors from the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO) in the dark about two covert operations against journalists in 2018 and 2023, it has been disclosed. Brian Leveson, the investigatory powers commissioner, confirmed in a letter to the Northern Ireland Policing Board that the PSNI only informed IPCO about the covert operations in 2025, after they had become public.The disclosure, is contained in letters published in the Northern Ireland Policing Board’s annual human rights report – first reported by The Detail – comes as the PSNI is preparing to publish a review by barrister Angus McCullough KC into police surveillance of journalists and lawyers in Northern Ireland.
Journalists and NUJ members McCaffrey and Birney told Computer Weekly https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366630438/Northern-Ireland-police-kept-inspectors-in-dark-over-surveillance-of-journalists that the PSNI had consistently failed to take oversight seriously during their legal battle with the PSNI.
“It’s quite clear that the PSNI is incapable of acting honestly with any of these oversight bodies. They don’t take it seriously at all, or they show them complete disrespect by failing to properly and honestly interact with them,” said McCaffrey. He said the only way of getting to the truth was to hold an independent public inquiry. We now see with Brian Leveson that they have withheld evidence even when IPCO was asking for it, and we fear that there are going to be more incidents of this when the McCullough Report comes out,” he added.
The report is now expected to be published on 24 September https://www.mcculloughreview.org/news/confirmed-publication-date-substantive-report-24-september-2025.
Commenting on the revelations, Ian McGuiness, NUJ Irish organiser, said: “The latest revelations about the PSNI not disclosing surveillance of journalists to the IPCO shows an element of contempt for the oversight body and the role of journalists in society. It appears obvious that once again the PSNI were trying to uncover journalists’ confidential sources. Allegations of the PSNI spying on journalists are not new. The question now is how many more instances that we don’t know about. NUJ members will once again be dismayed at these latest revelations and any confidence that they had that the PSNI will stop spying on them to uncover their sources has surely been further eroded.”