Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Grahame Morris (Labour), on Monday, 20 July 2020, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 15 members in total.

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Return of journalist material in relation to No Stone Unturned documentary

That this House welcomes the clear and unambiguous ruling of the Lord Chief Justice in the case of journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney, whose arrests for their role in making the award-winning documentary No Stone Unturned about the Loughinsland massacre were judge to be unlawful; notes that the arrests were carried out by Durham Constabulary at the behest of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) on warrants issued outside the correct legal framework; further welcomes the recent unreserved apology made to the two journalists by the PSNI, which committed to reviewing the legal judgement to learn all appropriate lessons; believes that not only were the unlawful arrests a cause of distress, the position of the police since the illegal detentions has had a devastating impact on those two NUJ members; notes that the PSNI still retains a vast amount of journalistic material despite the issue of the court order; calls on the Chief Constable to demonstrate the sincerity of the apology by bringing to an end this shameful episode by arranging the immediate return of all material seized or copied; and further calls on the PSNI to act on the information contained in No Stone Unturrned to ensure that justice is delivered for the families of the Loughinisland victims.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

748 

Session

2019-21

Other sponsors

John McDonnell

Ian Mearns

Richard Burgon

Paula Barker

Ian Byrne

Subjects

Arrests Journalism Police Service of Northern Ireland Terrorism Television Loughinisland Birney, Trevor McCaffrey, Barry

Link

View this Early day motion on edm.parliament.uk