Journalists, lawyers and NGOs who believe they may have been placed under surveillance by police are being urged to make submissions to the KC-led review.
The McCullough Review, which is being led by London based KC Angus McCullough, was set up by PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher earlier this year after it emerged that police have been carrying out surveillance on journalists and members of the legal profession.
In a report to the policing board in June the PSNI admitted making 823 applications for communications data for journalists and lawyers over a 13-year period from 2011-2024.
It later emerged that more than 4,000 phone communications between 12 journalists were monitored by police over a three-month period.
Details of the snooping scandal came to light through the London-based IPT, which is examining allegations that investigative journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney, were subjected to unlawful surveillance.
The pair made a complaint to the IPT in 2019 over their arrest the previous year in connection with an acclaimed 2017 documentary about the UVF sectarian murder of six men at the Heights Bar in Loughinisland, Co Down, in June 1994.
A third journalist, RTÉ‘s Vincent Kearney, who previously worked with the BBC in Belfast, is also known to have been placed under surveillance.
Patrick Corrigan of Amnesty International, who is a member of the McCullough Review group of experts and stakeholders, urged people to respond to the call to evidence before Friday’s 5pm deadline.
“The evidence disclosed to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal investigating spying on Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney has pointed to worrying surveillance practices by the PSNI in relation to journalists, lawyers and the office of the police ombudsman,” he said.
“We now need answers to wider questions about the full extent of police use and misuse of secret surveillance powers in Northern Ireland.
“The McCullough Review can help provide those answers.”
Mr McCullough urged “any individual or group that has information relevant to my inquiry to be in touch with me”
