IT’S probably fair to say that many National readers will have a jaundiced view of the BBC because of what they perceived to be bias during the referendum campaign.
But you do not have to be a fan of the BBC to be concerned at suggestions broadcast on Scotland 2015 last night that one of the corporation’s journalists may have been under police surveillance while he was investigating the police inquiry into the murder of Emma Caldwell.
Our sister newspaper the Sunday Herald reported earlier this week that Police Scotland was one of two forces which had accessed journalists’ phone data without the necessary legal permission.
Police Scotland have refused to confirm or deny the story.
The BBC broadcast last night lends more credence to claims that Police Scotland’s Counter Corruption Unit had been accessing the information.
Why does this matter? Because it is essential in a free country that journalists are able to seek out information – by legal means – without being spied on by the authorities.
And because journalists often rely on whistleblowers and anonymous sources to highlight matters which properly belong in the public domain. There is a long list of important stories which would never have been published had it not been for the courage of those who have spoken out to journalists.
If those sources fear their identities will be revealed it will make it much less likely that they step forward, making it very much easier for those in power to keep secret matters which they would prefer you not to know.
In this case it look very likely that a perfectly legal and understandable investigation into a police inquiry prompted police officers to spy on the journalist involved, and therefore on those who were giving him information.
Whatever you think of the BBC, that smacks of an authoritarian approach which has no place in modern Scotland.
Police ‘spying’ linked to Emma Caldwell murder probe
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