Police and MI5 waged campaign of illegal interference against BBC journalist, tribunal told

MI5 admitted last year it had twice unlawfully obtained Kearney’s phone data. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA

Police and MI5 subjected a BBC journalist to a “long and consistent campaign of unlawful interference” by obtaining communications data from his mobile phone, a tribunal has heard.

The surveillance was targeted at Vincent Kearney, who was the BBC’s Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent, and occurred over an eight-year period as authorities sought to identify his sources.