Pro bono matters
Who’s listening? When under-cover journalism and covert policing collide.
Investigative journalists secure advice on how to effectively complain to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal about surveillance concerns.
PILS member(s): The Detail
What did PILS provide: Legal advice through the Pro Bono Register
Issue:
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is the UK’s independent forum that examines complaints from people who are worried they have been the victim of unlawful surveillance techniques.
One important point to note is that that agencies being investigated by the IPT can’t refuse to share information due to national security concerns. For that reason, it is a powerful forum, one that can shine a light on complex issues that might otherwise remain opaque.
The IPT is a part of the courts system that many people may not have heard of, as it is responsible for examining complaints about covert conduct. By their very nature, those activities are a secretive business and something that most of us will never experience in our day to day lives (or will only encounter on tv or film).
However, if you are an investigative journalist who is probing into potential wrongdoing in the public interest, the possibility of being spied on by security services becomes less cinematic. It’s entirely plausible.
The experience of two well-known NI journalists, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, brought the issue of police surveillance of media outlets into public consciousness. Having been arrested in 2018 in an attempt to uncover a source’s identity, the journalists discovered in March 2023 that the IPT had been looking into surveillance of the pair by the Police Service of Northern Ireland as far back as 2013.
However, Trevor and Barry suspected that their high-profile experience was simply the tip of a particularly unnerving iceberg.
Their suspicions were confirmed in April 2024, when the IPT discovered that the PSNI had routinely monitored the phones of eight journalists.
That was the concern that The Detail’s team of public interest journalists approached PILS with. If they ever needed to go to the IPT with concerns about their own staff members, they wanted to know how to make the most effective complaints and provide the Tribunal with the most incisive information.
To assist The Detail’s editorial team, PILS requested legal advice from a barrister on our Pro Bono Register. This advice was compiled and shared with The Detail within two months of PILS receiving the media platform’s request.
Impact:
Trevor and Barry’s experience has brought the risks posed by over-zealous surveillance onto our front pages.
Public awareness of the prevalence of these secretive practices – and the importance of the IPT’s role – has grown as a result.
This request for pro bono support from The Detail also prompted PILS to have follow-up discussions about the level of awareness among other member organisations about the process of – and the ultimate usefulness of – complaining to the IPT.
These conversations have continued since the legal advice was shared with The Detail. PILS are in the process of organising a training workshop to share this knowledge with our wider community of members. Watch this space…