This is disclosed in the first-ever study of crime and security journalism in Ireland involving interviews with 23 journalists working in the north and south of Ireland.

Most of the participants who said they were questioned by gardaí about their sources said the interviews were done voluntarily. But at least one participant in the study said they were threatened with arrest as part of an investigation into their sources.

Most described the experience as non-threatening; but others did not view it so benignly. One study participant said: “…two plain clothes investigators arrived at the door of the [news organisation’s office] and they wanted to talk to me, so I brought them in and I had a feeling it may have been about [a] story and they said that they wanted all my notebooks and they wanted information on this person that had spoken to me.” (see page 26 of the report)

The Research Ireland-funded study, entitled The Role of Crime and Security Journalism in Irish Democracy is co-authored by Dr Cian Ó Concubhair from Maynooth University School of Law & Criminology and Glory Anumudu. The study is conducted in partnership with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL).

The project interviewed journalists who report on crime and security in the north and south of Ireland, in local and national news organisations. The participants include specialist crime and security journalists, as well as generalists who have significant experience reporting on crime and security issues.

The study examined journalists’ attitudes to policing and the judiciary and their relationships to both. It also explored the threats faced by journalists reporting on crime and security, from state and non-state actors, changes to the news industry and disinformation.

The study focused, in particular, on the ability of journalists to protect their confidential sources in Ireland and journalists’ confidence in legal protections. Some participants in the south felt that privilege was protected less by legal rights and more by current political restraint. Participants in the north were more confident in the capacity of the legal system to protect journalistic privilege but did not believe that the PSNI respected journalists’ need to protect confidential sources.

Olga Cronin, Head of Policy, ICCL, said: “The experiences voiced by journalists in this study regarding attempts by gardai to identify their sources will shock many. Even if done voluntarily, the questioning of journalists in this manner could have a chilling effect on Irish journalism, especially in situations where journalists are seeking to pursue stories of Garda misconduct. We need legislation supporting the rights of journalists.”

Participants in the study described An Garda Síochána and the PSNI as secretive, institutionally closed and resistant to transparency and accountability.

Many non-specialist participants felt that the relationship between specialist crime and security journalists and the police (PSNI or An Garda Síochána) is too close and undermines objective reporting on policing in Ireland.

Some non-specialist participants in the south identified the excessively close relationship between specialist reporters and Garda sources as being rooted in the imbalance in power between journalists and Gardaí due in part to the secrecy of the latter. This imbalance of power was viewed as creating informational dependency on informal sources, who could remove access to information if the source was unhappy with the journalists’ reporting.

These non-specialist participants felt that if information was routinely made available by Gardaí to all journalists, this would remove the need for journalists to cultivate informational relationships which might undermine their ability to report critically on An Garda Síochána.

Most participants – from the north and south – believed the PSNI and An Garda Síochána surveil journalists to identify their sources. A number of participants from the north and the south described being subject to such surveillance.

Participants in the north described the Fine Point Films case, where journalists investigating police collusion in the Loughinisland massacre were subject to police search and seizure of confidential journalist material and its aftermath as a turning point for journalist-police relations in Northern Ireland. That case was described by journalists as ending a post-Good Friday Agreement complacency about policing practices there.

The study also reveals highly gendered experiences of crime and security journalism. Most female participants described crime and security reporting in Ireland as being highly gendered. This included participants describing deeply sexist interactions with their professional peers and policing and security sources and outlining distinctive threats experienced by female journalists, including threats to their intimate and family lives.