Tribunal awards journalist £20,000 over unlawful MI5 and PSNI phone-data access
A UK tribunal ordered MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland to pay journalist Vincent Kearney £20,000 after ruling their access to his phone data unlawful and disproportionate.
A specialist UK tribunal has awarded former BBC journalist Vincent Kearney £20,000 after finding that MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland unlawfully obtained data from his mobile phone while trying to identify his sources.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled on Thursday, July 23, 2026, that the surveillance was disproportionate and not conducted in accordance with the law. It ordered MI5 and the PSNI to pay £10,000 each.
Kearney and the BBC told the tribunal that seven police or intelligence operations obtained confidential communications data between 2006 and 2018, when he was the BBC’s Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent. The information included numbers that contacted him and the timing of calls and messages, but not their content. In one operation, authorities obtained information relating to 1,580 calls or texts.
The tribunal stressed that protections for journalists serve the public interest by enabling audiences to receive information from confidential sources. Kearney, now northern editor at Irish broadcaster RTÉ, described the ruling as an affirmation of journalists’ duty and legal right to protect sources.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher accepted the ruling and apologised to Kearney, saying the force had made significant changes to its policies and practices. The case followed a 2024 tribunal judgment that found unlawful covert surveillance of Belfast-based journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney.
