The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) created a detailed profile of former BBC Northern Ireland journalist Vincent Kearney's professional and private life as part of surveillance activities, according to submissions to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT).

The profile listed Kearney's date of birth, home and work addresses, landline and mobile numbers, vehicle registrations, wife's name, mother-in-law's name, household residents, published articles, and article subjects. MI5 admitted to illegally obtaining communications data from Kearney's mobile phone in 2006 and 2009, with further disclosures showing multiple accesses and a request to open a file on him.

Kearney, now northern editor for RTE, appeared before the IPT over several days, with some hearings closed to the public. His lawyers alleged a campaign of unlawful interference with confidential journalistic material from 2006 to 2014 by PSNI, MI5, Metropolitan Police, and Durham Constabulary, covering his telephone interactions over months.

The case emerged from IPT proceedings involving The Detail journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney, arrested in 2018 over a documentary on the 1994 Loughinisland massacre in South Down. PSNI paid each 4,000 pounds in damages for unlawful intrusion, through which Kearney was identified as a surveillance target.

Submissions stated that almost all PSNI applications for journalists' communications data to identify sources from 2011 to March 2024 related to Kearney. Kearney and the BBC seek damages, deletion of material, and declarations of illegality.

A 2023 review by Angus McCullough KC found PSNI surveillance of journalists and lawyers not widespread but identified concerns; it excluded IPT cases and security service actions.