The BBC in Northern Ireland has begun a legal process to establish whether a senior journalist was subjected to alleged police surveillance.
The case involves Vincent Kearney, who is now RTÉ’s Northern Editor.
In 2011, he was a documentary maker with the BBC in Belfast.
The broadcaster has written to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal in London about alleged PSNI surveillance of phone data linked to Mr Kearney’s work at the time.
The tribunal is an independent judicial body which provides the right of redress to anyone who believes they may have been the victim of unlawful action by a public body using covert investigative techniques.
“We think that serious issues of public interest are involved, including in relation to the adverse effects that surveillance may have on journalistic investigations and freedoms,” a BBC spokesperson said.
The case centres on a documentary that Mr Kearney made in 2011 for BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight programme.
Titled the “Whistleblower and the Watchdog” it investigated the Office of Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman.
In particular, it examined allegations that its independence had been compromised and that it was not investigating complaints about police activities, including allegations of collusion, with sufficient rigour.
The programme led to calls for the resignation of then ombudsman Al Hutchinson, who announced his intention to step down a short time later.
Mr Kearney said he was concerned that police may have attempted to identify sources of information for the programme.
“Journalists must be free to carry out their work without fear that the police may secretly try to identify sources and I’m determined to find out what happened,” he said.
It is believed the incident came to light during a recent case by two other Belfast journalists who complained that they had been subjected to unlawful police monitoring.
Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey alleged they had been subjected to covert surveillance techniques in the course of their investigative work.
