Secret inquiry looking at police spying claims on Northern Ireland journalists

Trevor Birney (left) and Barry McCaffrey in 2018. The journalists were controversially arrested that year in connection to their work investigating a massacre during the Troubles. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

A secretive tribunal is looking into allegations that UK authorities spied on investigative journalists in Northern Ireland to identify their sources.

The investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) is examining a complaint by two journalists who asked the body to find out whether police in Northern Ireland and Durham, as well as MI5 and GCHQ, used intrusive surveillance powers against them.