CLEVELAND Police’s use of anti-terror laws to access journalists’ phone records was raised by peers as they debated the government’s new “snooper’s charter”.
Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord Black, executive director of Telegraph Media Group, warned there needed to be more protection for journalists and their sources in the government’s new Investigatory Powers Bill.
He said the fact police forces and other public authorities had used the Bill’s predecessor, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), as “reputation management”, meant an extra amendment to the bill, to protect journalists, was needed.
The amendment calls for judicial approval to access journalists’ material - and for news organisations to be able to represent themselves in court.
Lord Black said: “It has often been the local press, who are guardians of local democracy and accountability, who have been in the firing line.
“In 2012, Cleveland police used RIPA powers to access the phone records of three Northern Echo journalists to try to find out the source of its coverage of a Cleveland Police internal report that revealed elements of institutional racism within the police force.”
At present the Bill only requires judicial approval for phone record requests made to identify a source – and they can be made in secret.
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