Index and English Pen welcome decision by Northern Ireland’s Lord Chief Justice in Loughinisland massacre journalists’ case

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Update: Update: On 3 June 2019, the criminal investigation into Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey was dropped. The Durham Constabulary and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) announced that they were no longer investigating the two journalists.

Update: On 31 May the High Court in Belfast ruled that journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey acted lawfully, that police warrants against them were “inappropriate” and that all confiscated material be returned. Justice Morgan said that the material “does not indicate that the journalists acted in anything other than a perfectly proper manner”. “We consider that there’s no reason why, subject to suitable protections, for declining to return the material in their entirety to the journalists,” he added.

Index on Censorship and English PEN welcome the decision by the High Court in Northern Ireland to quash the warrants obtained by police to carry out raids on the homes and office of Belfast journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey.

Birney and McCaffrey produced a documentary No Stone Unturned which examines claims of state collusion in the murders of six men.

In evidence submitted to the High Court in Northern Ireland, Index on Censorship and English PEN said the raid on the homes and office of Birney and McCaffrey should be ruled unlawful.

Index on Censorship and English PEN filed a written submission to the court on May 17 after the court granted permission for the organisations to intervene. Index on Censorship and English PEN are represented by solicitor Darragh Mackin at Phoenix Law and barrister Jude Bunting at Doughty Street Chambers.

Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland Sir Declan Morgan said: “We are minded to quash the warrants on the basis that they were inappropriate, whatever the other arguments.”

A further hearing is set for 2pm on Friday 31 May which will determine what remedy to grant following the success of the judicial review. The remedies could include: quashing the warrant; ordering the return to the journalists of the documents seized by police; damages.

Index on Censorship magazine editor Rachael Jolley said: “We welcome the news that the Lord Chief Justice is minded to quash the warrants against Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey. This is a significant step to ensure that press freedom is protected. English PEN and Index argued in a submission to the court that the conduct carried out in this case to raid the journalists’ houses and carry away documents and items that were not even related to the documentary was likely to have the effect of intimidating journalists throughout Northern Ireland and further afield.”

English PEN Director Antonia Byatt said: “We are very encouraged by this latest development in the case against Northern Irish journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, following our joint intervention in the case against them last week. We hope very much that Friday’s hearing will bring more good news. It is crucial that freedom of the press in the UK is protected, especially in the light of Jeremy Hunt’s current campaign for global media freedom.”

Mackin of Phoenix Law, said: “This is a victory for press freedom and common sense. The protection of journalistic material and sources is one of the basic conditions for freedom of expression. If journalists and their sources cannot rely on confidentiality, they may decide not to exchange information on sensitive matters of public interest for fear of the consequences. As a result, the vital “public watchdog” role of the press will be undermined and the ability of the press to provide accurate and reliable reporting may be adversely affected. This is why the approach of the police in this case was so obviously wrong. The decision to grant a warrant to obtain information from journalists, without giving them an opportunity to comment, had the purpose or effect of intimidating journalists the world over. The international significance of this claim is reflected in our client’s intervention.”

Index on Censorship is a London-based non-profit organisation that publishes work by censored writers and artists and campaigns against censorship worldwide. Since its founding in 1972, Index on Censorship has published some of the greatest names in literature in its award-winning quarterly magazine, including Samuel Beckett, Nadine Gordimer, Mario Vargas Llosa, Arthur Miller and Kurt Vonnegut. It also has published some of the world’s best campaigning writers from Vaclav Havel to Elif Shafak. Contact: [email protected].

English PEN is a registered charity and membership organisation which campaigns in the United Kingdom and around the world to protect the freedom to share information and ideas through writing.PEN supports authors and journalists in the United Kingdom and internationally who are prosecuted, persecuted, detained, or imprisoned for exercising the right to freedom of expression. English PEN has a strong record of campaigning for legal reform throughout the United Kingdom.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1559659124565-535dd29e-e875-4″ taxonomies=”8996″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Free expression organisations intervene in case of Northern Ireland investigative journalists

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”106984″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”106985″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]A raid on the homes and office of two Northern Irish investigative journalists should be ruled unlawful, freedom of expression groups Index on Censorship and English PEN have said in a submission to the High Court in Northern Ireland.

Index and English PEN have intervened in the case of Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, who were arrested and questioned last year following armed raids on their homes over allegations a confidential document featured in their documentary No Stone Unturned, which examines claims of state collusion in the murders of six men had been stolen.  

During the raid, police seized documents, personal computers and USB sticks belonging to family members and copied a computer server that contained years of sensitive reporting by the documentary makers, risking endangering confidential sources unrelated to the film.

Birney, McCaffrey and Fine Point Films will argue in a judicial review case to be heard in Belfast next week that the court should recognise that the search warrants used to carry out the raids were unlawful and improperly executed.

Index on Censorship and English PEN filed a written submission to the court on May 17 after the court granted permission for the organisations to intervene.

“The application for and execution of the search warrants was wholly disproportionate,” the submission states, noting the “chilling effect” of such orders. “That chilling effect is considerably more acute when the application is made ex parte [with respect to or in the interests of one side only or of an interested outside party], when authorities on the rights of journalists are not brought to the Court’s attention, and when the manner of the execution of the search warrants is so severe… such conduct is likely to have the effect of intimidating journalists throughout Northern Ireland and further afield.”

Index on Censorship and English PEN are represented by solicitor Darragh Mackin at Phoenix Law and barrister Jude Bunting at Doughty Street Chambers.

For more information please contact Sean Gallagher at Index on Censorship – [email protected] – or Cat Lucas at English PEN – [email protected].

Notes for editors

The judicial review will be held from 28 – 30 May.

English PEN is a registered charity and membership organisation which campaigns in the United Kingdom and around the world to protect the freedom to share information and ideas through writing.PEN supports authors and journalists in the United Kingdom and internationally who are prosecuted, persecuted, detained, or imprisoned for exercising the right to freedom of expression. English PEN has a strong record of campaigning for legal reform throughout the United Kingdom.

Index on Censorship is a London-based non-profit organisation that publishes work by censored writers and artists and campaigns against censorship worldwide. Since its founding in 1972, Index on Censorship has published some of the greatest names in literature in its award-winning quarterly magazine, including Samuel Beckett, Nadine Gordimer, Mario Vargas Llosa, Arthur Miller and Kurt Vonnegut. It also has published some of the world’s best campaigning writers from Vaclav Havel to Elif Shafak.[/vc_column_text][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1558600708500-33cfa04e-8965-8″ taxonomies=”8996″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Ireland: Students at Trinity College vote against proposition to defund University Times

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Trinity College, Dublin -- Knights of the Campanile

Trinity College, Knights of the Campanile initiation ceremony. Credit: Eleanor O’Mahony, The University Times

The threat to the future of one of the two student newspapers at Dublin’s Trinity College has been averted following a referendum among students who voted against a proposition to defund the University Times.

The controversy, which was viewed as having implications for press freedom and freedom of speech at the university by bodies such as the National Union of Journalists, followed reporting of alleged hazing at an all-male and secretive sporting club, the Knights of the Campanile.

The story, reported last week by Index On Censorship, centred on the methods used to investigate the story. Those favouring punishing the newspaper claimed that listening in and using a recording device was an infringement of their privacy rights and suggested journalists would be randomly bugging student rooms.

Those favouring the newspaper and its staff said the story was in the public interest and that justified the journalists’ actions. Among those who supported the University Times included a former attorney general and minister for Justice, Michael McDowell. Support also came from the International Federation of Journalists and the NUJ’s Ethics Council, as well as a number of prominent Irish journalists.

The other university newspaper, Trinity News, accused the University Times of acting contrary to journalistic ethics and called for the resignation of the editor.

The vote was 788 voting to defund the newspaper and a massive 2271 against, which is 74 per cent in favour of the University Times.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1555320232097-24dbceca-960a-5″ taxonomies=”8843″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Ireland: Trinity College newspaper faces closure over investigation into all-male student society

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Trinity College, Dublin -- Knights of the Campanile

Trinity College, Knights of the Campanile initiation ceremony. Credit: Eleanor O’Mahony, The University Times

UPDATE: Some 74 per cent of students voted against slashing the funding of The University Times at Trinity College, Dublin.

A student newspaper at Ireland’s oldest university, Trinity College, Dublin, could face closure after a forthcoming student referendum due to a row over methods used to investigate a story about initiation into an elitist all-male college society.

The initiation ceremony, or “hazing”, was seemingly meted out to those invited to become members of the Knights of the Campanile, an invitation-only sporting society, based on similar bodies at Oxford and Cambridge universities.

The story was published in The University Times, a student union-funded, though independent newspaper, last month. The story, Knights of the Campanile Hazes Members on Campus, went on to say that reporters from the newspaper had witnessed an initiation ceremony for the elite invitation-only society. It claimed members were taken to the rooms of the society president, while the reporters listened outside and left a recording device outside the door. The reporters heard the potential members being jeered, taunted and told to “bend over”, “get in the shower” to “whisper insults in each others’ ears” and that “HIV is going on your toast tomorrow”.

Groaning, gagging and retching sounds were heard coming from the room. Members were told “it’s gonna be a long night, boys” before being driven away in rental cars.

There was an almost instant condemnation of the methods used rather than the society and the hazing allegation, including from the rival newspaper, Trinity News, which called for the resignation of the editor and said the methods were contrary to journalistic ethics. A petition calling for the newspaper to be defunded, which would almost certainly close it, was also initiated.

However, the story grew. The NUJ’s Ethics Council came out in support The University Times, whose staff are student members of the union, and the International Federation of Journalists described the attempted closure as an attack on press freedom. The university’s School of Law is split, with three professors highlighting the inviolability of the dwelling in the Constitution of Ireland, which the journalists are meant to have breached. Their colleague, professor Eoin O’Dell, defended the newspaper, its reporters and their methods, based on a public interest defence that trumped privacy and was justified by the public interest and the importance of the story. Michael McDowell, Ireland’s former Attorney General and former Minister for Justice, argued at a public meeting at Trinity that the public interest and the guarantees of a free press in the constitution were enough to protect the newspaper and its ethical behaviour.

Another solution, which was not taken up, was that instead of threatening a newspaper with closure, the issue should be taken to the Irish Press Council for adjudication, as both student newspapers are members.

The same newspaper had previously published a story concerning hazing by the college boat club.

The referendum will take place on 10 and 11 April.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1555078636454-225c0bbf-fd09-5″ taxonomies=”8843″][/vc_column][/vc_row]