Northern Ireland police spied on investigative journalists, tribunal told

Barry McCaffrey (left) and Trevor Birney outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Birney said the PSNI had shown a ‘complete and utter disrespect for journalists’. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

The Police Service of Northern Ireland covertly surveilled a group of journalists on a six-month rolling basis because they were conducting unwanted investigations into the force, a secretive tribunal has heard.

Details of what the PSNI are said to describe as a “defensive operation” were heard at the latest hearing of the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) into whether two Northern Irish investigative journalists, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, were spied on by UK police and intelligence services seeking to identify their sources.