The chief constable of Northern Ireland has commissioned an ‘independent review’ of police surveillance of journalists, lawyers and civil society groups following allegations the police unlawfully obtained phone data of “trouble making” journalists. Jon Boutcher, chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland appointed Angus McCullogh, a special advocate, to review “matters of concern” following disclosures that police had used surveillance powers in an attempt to identify journalists’ confidential sources. His intervention came as the Investigatory Powers Tribunal investigates claims that the PSNI had unlawfully spied on journalists, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey after they produced a film exposing the PSNI’s failure to investigate the murders of six innocent people killed by a paramilitary group in Loughinisland, County Down, in 1994. The PSNI accepted it had unlawfully monitored McCaffrey’s phone in 201