Friday, 24 July 2020

Northern Irish journalists supported by Index finally vindicated over search warrants

Northern Irish investigative journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey have been vindicated after the country's divisional court published its reasons for quashing the search warrant obtained by the Police Service of Northern Ireland relating to their documentary No Stone Unturned. The documentary examined claims of state collusion in the murders of six men in Loughinisland, County Down.

Index and English PEN intervened in the case in 2018 after Birney and McCaffrey were arrested and questioned following armed raids on their homes over allegations that a confidential document featured in the documentary had been stolen from the Police Ombudsman.

In the submission to the court we said the application for and execution of the search warrants was wholly disproportionate and that "such conduct is likely to have the effect of intimidating journalists throughout Northern Ireland and further afield”.

Index and Engish PEN were represented by solicitor Darragh Mackin at Phoenix Law and barrister Jude Bunting at Doughty Street Chambers.

In its reasoning, the court said it "could see no overriding requirement in the public interest which could have justified an interference with the protection of journalistic sources". The chief constable of the PSNI has now apologised to Birney and McCaffrey.

Index on Censorship's editor-in-chief Rachael Jolley said, "This is an important victory for media freedom. Index now calls for the PSNI to return the belongings that they seized from the two journalists. This should be done immediately."

"Covid-19 is another excuse to curb freedom of speech": Justice for Journalists Foundation director Maria Ordzhonikidze

In March 2020, Index on Censorship partnered with Justice for Journalists Foundation to keep track of attacks on media freedom under cover of the Covid-19 pandemic. Four months on and the project has recorded more than 230 physical and verbal assaults, detentions and arrests and fines around the world. The largest number of incidents are in Russia and the former Soviet Union. Associate editor Mark Frary talks to JFJ's Maria Ordzhonikidze about why this is the case.

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Ruth Smeeth: "Index will always be a home for people who want to be heard"

"There are so many ways you can infringe on someone else’s free speech and obviously some examples are much more egregious than others. Some instances undermine the very premise of this most basic of human rights whilst others are so personal that they create a chilling effect on people’s ability to participate in their own national conversation.

This week, we’ve been able to witness everything on the spectrum from people being trolled for taking a stand against racism to Maria Ressa facing yet more legal action in the Philippines." Read the weekly blog post from our chief executive.

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Join us on Friday 31st July at 12.30pm BST for an Index lunchtime discussion on just how much we're being surveilled even at home.

Can people see more than just your bookshelves on Zoom? How up close and personal are those drones getting in the sky? Will contact tracing apps look at more than just encounters with those infected with Covid-19? Join industry experts, journalists and the Index on Censorship magazine team for a discussion about some of the most important issues we face today when it comes to our privacy in the age of coronavirus.

Join author and journalist Kaya Genç from Istanbul, award-winning freelance journalist Issa Sikiti da Silva, who has travelled extensively across Africa, Spanish investigative journalist Silvia Nortes, and Index on Censorship magazine's editor-in-chief Rachael Jolley..

The new issue will be available on the day here.

Bring your sandwiches and we will provide food for thought. Register for your free place here.

Index on Censorship defends people's freedom to express themselves without fear of harm or persecution. We publish censored writers and artists, monitor and campaign against censorship, and encourage debate.

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