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Aontú leader, Peadar Tóibín, has raised an alleged recording of phone calls between himself and a journalist by the PSNI in the Dáíl.
It comes after a number of journalist made similar allegations, the Meath West TD stated:
“Vincent Kearney, the current RTÉ Northern Correspondent believes the PSNI has attempted to identify sources he worked with while he was with the BBC. Vincent Kearney’s case came to light as a result of another case involving two other journalists in the north. They allege unlawful police surveillance of them”, Teachta Tóibín said.
“On two occasions I was on the phone to a journalist in the north of Ireland. On both occasions the call dropped, but before I got to hang up, a recording of the phone call I just had, played back to me. It was clear that the phone call I just had was being recorded and the recording had malfunctioned”.
“Is it good enough that the PSNI record the calls of journalists. Is it good enough that the PSNI or any organ of the British Military record the phone call of a member of this Dáil?
Is this how a democracy should function more than 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement? Will you raise this threat to the democratic system with the incoming Secretary of State for the North of Ireland?” he asked.
NEW: Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín says his phone calls to journalists in the North have been recorded by the PSNI - says in some instances, the call has dropped, and a recording of the conversation immediately played back to him. He asks Taoiseach to raise the practice with UK Govt. pic.twitter.com/jcuAXA83IB
In May of this year, police in Northern Ireland undertook six-monthly trawls of the phone data of “troublemaker” journalists to see if they were in contact with officer sources, a tribunal heard.
“Details of what was described as “Orwellian” PSNI spying tactics on reporters emerged at a sitting of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) in London”, the Irish Times reported.
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